Before Rio: Days in the Amazon Sun
by Sorrelwing
Summary: Maddened by grief, the red tribe's leader, Rojo, targets the Spix's macaws. Secretly, Jewel and red macaw Adelaide try to think of a peaceful resolution, while Felipe is unwillingly dragged into his father's plot, and Adelaide, who he loves, is driven away. As tensions escalate, Jewel's friendship with Adelaide struggles as a night approaches set to scar countless macaws for life.
1. Dark times

**_After almost three years of moaning about how terrible the first version was and promising myself to rewrite it, I've finally decided to get Jewel's prequel underway. However, this version will be very different - I'll keep a few things the same, I'm going to be filling in a few plot holes and lame facts I left in both Jewel's and Felipe's prequels. I mean, Adelaide and Jewel barely knew each other when (I'm pretty sure you guys know what happened to the former but in case of a new reader, I won't say)_ that _happened, and Adelaide is an important part of Jewel's life in the Estrella. What was I thinking? What a mare._**

 ** _I've decided to bung Felipe's backstory into it too, rather than a whole story to himself with the complicated overlapping with over stories I did – his past will be different too. Maybe its more like an actual novel or maybe it's because I wanted to rewrite his story too but couldn't for the life of me be asked to depict Adelaide's friendship with Jewel in two stories - it's a little bit tricky to do._** ** _Essentially, I'm rewriting Jewel and Felipe's prequels all in one. Sound good? Yes? Perfect. Here goes nothing. The gorgeous cover is not my own artwork (as much as I wish it could be!), but borrowed from a piece of concept art from the second movie. Anyway, here we go!_**

 ** _Love, Sorrel_**

The sky over the rainforest was black with storm clouds amassing overhead. There was the occasional rumble of thunder overhead, and a few drops of rain were sometimes felt. In the gloom, two pairs of birds hurried through the rainforest, in a rush to get to where they needed to be. Their feathers were indistinguishable in the night, but then, lightning sparked and revealed the two flashes of ocean against the land.

One was a medium cerulean with eyes like green ice, made this unsettled by the recent events and by the grim meeting they had coming, and the other a much darker blue with turquoise eyes that leaned more towards the green side of the turquoise spectrum. She was very pretty with a small, yet strong and lithe build. Her mate was more compact, and had a militarized style to his head feathers. Fatigue and stress had given him eyebags despite being young in his twenties, while his female counterpart, while not possessing them yet, had grey under hers from the recent events. As relatively new parents there should have been a sparkle in their eyes, but it had been overshadowed by recent events.

"Little Tobias has caught it now." the female said, sadly, in a soft voice tinged with Brazilian accent.

"He's barely a few weeks old!" exclaimed the male, in horror. "Poor kid. He's not much older than Roberto... is it bad?"

"His mother spoke to me earlier. Luckily it seems as though he's got a milder version - no grey marks. He's just got a fever and lost a few feathers. Until his fever goes down, he's staying in the tunnels."

"I wish less of us had the severe strain. Tobias is the ninth one with the weaker case, if that's right. But the others..." they said no more about it.

They arrived in a walking palm grove, the traditional meeting between the four leading pairs - in times of crises, this was where the four tribes of this particular area would meet. Four flat-topped boulders stood in the clearing, and the two blue birds got onto their boulder, so they faced the opposite of the other three. The blue pair landed on their side, not daring to cross the line – partially for border reasons, but for another, which was why they were here. Side by side, they waited for something to happen – after a few moments, there was movement on the other side of the treeline. Another pair, looking tired and worried.

The male was tall and compactly built, the colour of blood - hence his name, 'Rojo', which meant 'red'. There was weariness in the dark yellow of his eyes, a hostility and mistrust, as he looked across the space between them. He was criss-crossed with scars, and had a nick out of his beak. On his right, his mate looked on, holding onto his shoulder – as if to stop him lunging forwards to attack. She was beautiful despite the tiredness and the uneasiness, a pink tint to her sleek crimson plumage, her eyes a calm blue despite the fear. She had tried to keep herself well-kept, unlike him. She'd made the effort to look clean and poised, while he, with his ruffled appearance, proved he hadn't bothered. Yellow and blue striped both their wings.

"Eduardo, Tiana." Perlina said, formally. _She used to call me Tia,_ thought the blue female, miserably, remembering a happier time.

"Rojo, Perlina. Thank you for joining us." Said Eduardo, a little nervously.

"What do you want?" asked Rojo, the red male, in a gruff voice. Perlina's eyes flashed, and she elbowed him in the side, reminding him to be polite. Behind every patriarch was a great matriarch, was a tribe saying – and it was true in their case. Perlina kept Rojo – who was notorious for being a stubborn and hostile – in line. Rojo had been a nicer individual in their youth, and while he seemed to revert to this caring and level of kindness when around his tribe and Perlina, who he loved dearly - but to outsiders he was hostile and devious. She kept him negotiable enough and had persuaded him to attend the meeting urgently called by their 'friends'. Friends was very inaccurate - tensions had been higher than ever.

"We must wait." Tia urged. "Jorge and the Blue-and-Golds are yet to arrive." At the mention of 'Jorge', both Rojo and Perlina went rigid. Even Eduardo flinched when his mate said the name out loud.

"You invited _Jorge?"_ Perlina hissed, forgetting her calm and collected state. "You must be loco. Since his mate died he's become nuttier than a –"

"Than a what, Perlina?" said a cool voice, making them all stiffen. An enormous, navy bird with yellow facial markings had appeared on his rock, as if out of nowhere. He towered over Eduardo and Rojo who were tall by their species standards - his eyes were an unfriendly, icy blue, and he had more scars than Rojo. His feathers had grey woven through them, patchy, with a few bald spots. He had somebody new with him – a sour-faced girl, a few years old, who neither pair had seen before. _So, that must be his daughter,_ thought the others. Jorge would have normally have his mate to accompany him, but she had been killed by a tunnel collapse not long ago - the Hyacinths lived in a network of them.

"I didn't mean you." Perlina snapped, and Jorge didn't believe her lie.

"Sure you didn't." He said, bluntly. "My daughter doesn't agree, though. Do you, Kerja?" the angry looking female nodded, but didn't say a word. She shuffled her feet, self-conciously trying to hide her deformed foot, which was twisted like tree roots. The smaller pairs looked uncomfortable with the presence of the enormous Hyacinths - Kerja alone was larger than them, and she was less than a quarter to a fifth of their ages.

"We're not here to start arguments!" The Blue-and-Gold, Santiago, had appeared on the fourth rock - for some reason, without his mate and tribe matriarch, Hortense. He was the oldest, at least thirty years of age. The leader of the most peaceful tribe, he had a soft-spoken voice to match his group's reputation. "We're here to discuss why this is happening."

"Where is Hortense?" asked Tia, in concern, noticing his missing mate. "She's not..."

"No. I thought it would be safer if only one of us travelled through the forest." Santiago replied. "To limit the risk."

"I don't know why we're even invited." Kerja spoke up, for the first time. "You're risking passing it onto us!" Her voice was like gravel, rough and unpleasant.

"Too bad." Muttered Rojo, out of earshot of the two Hyacinths, and Perlina flashed him a look.

"Let's get down to business." Eduardo said, loudly, before any arguments could break out. "We're here to report any changes in the spread of the illness, because its vital if we're all to survive. Tensions and hostilities are irrelevant at this time - we must set these aside for the collective good." Jorge snickered under his breath. Rojo turned his head toward the Hyacinth.

"Problem?" he asked, bitterly, but Jorge nor Kerja made a comment.

"Well, if that's all you want to hear, we'll report our side." Jorge sounded angry and tired. "Our tribe is doing well. Only three of us have caught the illness so far." _Maybe they're lying to hide weakness. Or they've escaped the illness because hardly anyone passes through their land,_ thought Eduardo. The Hyacinths were severely territorial, gaining a reputation for being brutally fierce. Jorge wore a necklace decorated with the feathers of tribes or groups they had defeated or driven out, but then, it was his father who had driven out most of them. Jorge wore it as a family heirloom, although he had a foul attitude to match his late father's. A worrying sign, considering how his father had met a gruesome demise in a tribe battle.

"Our tribe is beginning to recover." said Santiago, a glimmer of hope in his voice. "Our daughter Johanna, among several others, survived the illness - so it's not entirely fatal. Out of the sixteen of our birds who caught it, Johanna was one of the eight to survive. So, we'll have to assume that that's a fifty percent mortality rate." the Blue-and-Golds were medicine-orientated, so it was no surprise they had tackled the spread of the illness well. "We effectively stopped the spread by quarantining the effected tribe members, until their symptoms faded... or didn't." Tia's blue eyes filled with sympathy.

"I'm sorry." she murmured, and Perlina and Eduardo too looked sympathetic. Rojo did less so, while the two Hyacinths didn't show any care. In fact, they were leaving, to their surprise and discontent.

"Wait a moment!" Perlina shouted, in anger. "We're not finished! We have to discuss this!"

"There's no point in us being here," Jorge said, glancing over his shoulder. "We're not interested in what you all have to say. I have important matters to attend to. Stay out of our land, and we'll stay out of yours. Come along, Kerja." His daughter followed obediently, looking back with hate in the grey eyes. Santiago's face grew impatient and annoyed, as did Tia's, although Eduardo and Rojo looked glad that the two Hyacinths were gone.

"Good riddance." Rojo commented.

"Hush." Perlina looked at Rojo, before deciding to report their news. "We're still struggling. Twenty-one of us are affected, but like the Blue-and-Golds, we're keeping the sick birds separate from the rest of the tribe. But only five of them seem to be recovering." Santiago's eyes fell, as his calculation of fifty percent survival rate fell flat.

"Perhaps it affects some species more than others." The Blue-and-Gold suggested, gravely. There was a moment of respectful silence - then eyes turned to the last tribe leaders, to hear their news.

Eduardo and Tia's beaks didn't move. Tia shook slightly. "Unfortunately... we've seen many losses." Santiago and even Perlina looked concerned, but, for some strange reason, Rojo's eyes glimmered with interest. Perlina narrowed her eyes at her mate.

"We won't disclose the exact number." said Eduardo rather abruptly - he didn't want to show weakness, especially not in front of opportunistic Rojo. "We have been unable to keep many of those affected separate because family members have been refusing to stay away. Our healers cannot help."

"You must keep them away!" Perlina urged, distracted from Rojo. "By any means necessary, for the sake of the future. Even if that means barricading the infected inside their homes, to keep them apart from the healthy. These are desperate times!"

"We're keeping them out of our ravine." Tia protested, defensively. "They're... kept in the -" Eduardo coughed, reminding Tia not to reveal the tribe secret. The hidden cave behind their waterfall was a hideaway in case of attack, and nobody except their own knew about it - not even Santiago's peaceful group knew.

"We will try harder." Eduardo muttered. "We have a daughter now, so... we're going to go the distance to protect her and the tribe."

"Congratulations. We have a son, ourselves -" Perlina sounded bright for a moment, but then her voice faltered. For a moment it had felt like old times, but then she was reminded that those times had long gone. There had been a time once when she and Tia had been friends, even when Rojo and Eduardo had exchanged a conversation. Not now. A drought a few years ago had caused a shortage of edible food, and there had been a fight for rights to some fruit and nut groves. Relations had never been the same since, and this had caused the enforcement of borders. There was a long, sorrowful silence as these painful memories came back. Eduardo, Tia and Perlina's eyes filled with shame at the past.

"Alright, then. Leave a sign at the Border Tree if there's change." Santiago said, grimly, stirring them out their memories. "Until then, watch out for symptoms - high fever, feather loss around the neck, grey marks on the skin, breathing trouble. Good luck, and be careful." The Blue-and-Gold macaw turned, and disappeared into the dark. Rojo glared at Eduardo, before turning away and disappearing into the trees. Eduardo began to fly away, so Tia and Perlina were the only ones left. They gazed across the gap between them.

"It's a shame, isn't it?" Perlina murmured. Tia was unsure whether the Scarlet macaw was talking about the illness or their ruined friendship, but she could guess.

"I know." Tia said, sadly, knowing which one Perlina really meant. Perlina started to turn away. "What did you name your son?" Tia blurted out, before she left. Perlina looked back, with a small smile.

"Felipe." Perlina replied.

"After your dad?"

"You remember him, after all this time?" There was a pause.

"I do."

"Well... what did you call your daughter?"

"Jewel." Tia offered Perlina a smile. Her former friend returned it, before turning away, and fading into the trees. Tia sighed, eyes glazed with pain. "Things could've been so different." she whispered to herself.

"Tia!" Eduardo called, through the trees. Tia looked around one last time, before turning, and following Eduardo into the night.

 ** _For the record, I'm keeping the original two drafts until I'm absolutely certain this is a sure thing. When I'm confident enough it'll go through, I'll delete the original drafts._**


	2. Break the rules

Jewel's heart pounded in her chest. Sophia crouched alongside her, breathing rapidly. "Go away, Soph! We can't _both_ hide here!" Jewel insisted.

"I got here first!" Sophia said, indignantly. "If we both get caught, it'll be on you!" Jewel looked at her friend in annoyance, before peering out, looking for an alternative hiding spot - the knot of vines hanging below looked quite secluded. Rolling her turquoise eyes at Sophia, Jewel grabbed the vine, slowly, carefully sliding down it, before wriggling into the green tangles. She lay very still, not daring to breathe.

They passed overhead, intimidating and terrifying - draped in grey feathers, they were Harpy eagles. The flying beast of the jungle, not like the land beast or water beast, the jaguar and the alligator. They were almost inescapable. They swung their heads, searching for their victims, hidden amongst the foliage. Jewel tried not to gasp as one landed on the vine tangles, but failed to spot her, right under its beak.

"I saw them. I swear."

"You're imagining things! I saw them go that way!"

"That was a piece of falling fruit, genius!"

Jewel slowly crawled forwards, towards the gap, to try and see where the Harpy eagles were. Slowly, slowly - but then a face loomed in hers, and she released a squeal of surprise.

"Found you!" It wasn't a Harpy eagle at all. He had moulted grey feathers hanging over his back as a cloak, and his real feathers underneath were blue. He was dark blue, with several long feathers hanging from his head. His eyes were also blue, and his voice was silvery, promising to be that of a singer when he was older. He offered her his wing to help her out, the gracious individual he was.

"Ugh, Beto!" Jewel complained, wriggling out of her hiding place, letting him help pull her free. "You always manage to find me!"

"Well, remember it was you who found me!" Roberto exclaimed. That had been a few weeks ago. Jewel had been out with her mother and aunt Mimi when she'd heard a commotion, of something falling through leaves and branches. Sneaking away, she'd gone to the source of the sound, to find a chick laying half in, half out of a stream. She'd pulled him out of the water, but he'd lost consciousness before Tia and Mimi had found them.

When he'd woken, he'd refused to talk about how on earth he'd come to be in the stream after plummeting from the canopy - some birds called him 'the kid who fell from the sky,' or by the less sensitive kids, 'Roberto-who-never-talks-about-his-past.' It was clear by the state he'd been in when Jewel had found him that he'd been through a lot, for he'd been mottled with bruises, severely dehydrated and practically starving. He'd refused to say much about where he'd come from, but he'd made one thing certain: he'd lost his family.

It was clear by the agony in his blue eyes that he'd seen something truly heart-breaking - a few nights after joining the tribe, Tia had been talking to Eduardo about Roberto adding three names to the memorial wall. This was a list of deceased tribe members carved into the cave behind the waterfall. Whoever Alessandra, Ramon and Talitha were, they were dead if Roberto had put them on the list of the deceased. But he had a new family now - the tribe, and he'd become something of a brother figure to Jewel, living in her home tree with her, Tia and Eduardo.

"I found Sophia!" Carlos exclaimed, and there was a groan of annoyance as Sophia came out of hiding. Roberto left Jewel, and went to greet Sophia. Sophia was a joy to be around - she was witty and sharp, full of fire, but she could be so sweet as well. But there was always a shadow of sadness over her - Sophia's father had died when she was little more than a hatchling. The entire tribe been awoken one night to find her mother Zenaida in hysterics because Sophia's father had injured his wing and fallen to his death, and the grief was still fresh a few weeks later. Today, she didn't feel it, for the fun and thrill of the game had sailed her into high spirits.

"Well, that was a record. The longest time I've been able to stay hidden!" Sophia exclaimed, as they all came together and went back into the ravine, flying through the hideaway entrance until it opened into their plunge pool, surrounded by groves of trees. The waterfall twinkled like liquid starshine, and the plunge pool reflected the azure of the sky. Almost as soon as they got back in, a voice made them all jump.

"Sophia, there you are!" Zenaida, like a hawk, came swooping over. "Jespa said you'd gone. What did I tell you about leaving without my permission?"

"Ugh, Jespa." Carlos muttered a bit too loudly at the mention of Sophia's brother, and he flinched when Zenaida pierced him with her golden-eyed stare. He looked at Jewel, Roberto, and Sophia, before hurrying away towards his tree to escape.

Sophia's face went pink with humiliation - Zenaida was very loud, and several heads had turned. "Come along. We're visiting your grandmother." Said Zenaida, firmly.

"Mom, I..." Sophia tried to protest. As much as she loved her grandmother - perhaps more than Zenaida - her mother's harsh voice had killed her happiness. She looked at Jewel and Roberto apologetically. "Sorry, guys." She muttered, before reluctantly following her mother. Roberto watched her go, with sadness.

"It's probably the grief that's made Zenaida so angry." He said, but Jewel felt sorry for Sophia.

 _I'd be miserable too if my family were crazy,_ thought Jewel. Zenaida wasn't exactly pleasant to be around. Older than the average first-time mother, she was always criticizing, complaining about something, and seemingly overprotective, always calling Sophia away early from playing. She often had to sneak away from her mother to be with her friends.

"Trust Jespa to drop Sophia in the river." Jewel said, in annoyance. Sophia's older brother Jespa wasn't much better than Zenaida. Jewel found him to be a little odd and - mostly - downright miserable. He was a friendless fun-hater, but they luckily didn't see much of him. Jespa was either sulking on his own or with Zenaida.

"He is a bit odd." Roberto replied, uncomfortably, as they headed to Tia and Eduardo's tree. It eventually melted into view, one of the tallest in the ravine. It had been full-grown when the oldest bird living in the ravine had been a hatchling, so it was ancient, yet still sturdy. It was draped in vines that she, Roberto - and her always young-at-heart aunt Mimi - enjoyed swinging from.

"Mom? Dad?" Jewel landed on the sandy ground. Their tree was hollow almost all the way through, so it was possible to enter through the tree roots and fly all the way up the column to the part in the tree trunk hollow entrance. They were greeted by the sight of her mother, who was decorating the walls with flowers, humming a tune to herself. Tia was a small macaw with a light, lithe frame. She had long, wavy head feathers and turquoise eyes similar to Jewel's, albeit having a more green tint. She had long eyelashes and a soft, warm look like spring sunshine. Hearing her voice, Tia turned.

"Hello, you two!" Although her voice was bright, Tia's eyes were scanning them thoroughly, clouded with fear - but when she saw nothing concerning, relief flooded her gaze and the brightness grew genuine. Roberto began admiring the decorations, while Jewel ran up to Tia, who swept her off the floor. "Where have you been today, my little flower?"

"Just in the grove outside." Jewel replied, although she couldn't conceal her disappointment. "I know we're not allowed outside more than there... but mom... it's so boring." They weren't allowed further than there for good reason.

Their ravine was quieter than usual. Jewel and Roberto were still too young to fully grasp and understand the danger, because Tia and Eduardo hadn't wanted to frighten them with nightmares of the illness, infesting like invisible bugs. The ravine was quiet because their numbers had been slashed by almost forty. Just over twenty of them had vanished off the face of the earth, and the remaining ones were - according to Eduardo - "Just staying in the cave for a little while." Jewel knew there was sickness around, but she didn't realize how dangerous it was.

It had started a few days after Roberto had arrived, beginning when a bird named Jacinta had come down with a terrible fever, and begun losing neck feathers. Grey marks spotted her skin, and she was repeatedly sick. Strangely, her mate who hadn't left her side, began experiencing the same, and when news of other tribes having similar cases came to light, Jacinta, her mate and eight other affected birds were moved away from the tribe. Since then, Jacinta had come back, her neck feathers regrowing - this time, with tears and grief in her eyes, for her mate had been one of the many to 'vanish.'

"I know it's boring, Jewel." Tia said, gently. "But we have to be safe."

"You should listen to your mom." Said a new voice. Eduardo came striding in, smiling at his family, although the weariness didn't leave his face. He walked up to Tia, whispered something, and her face flooded with relief.

"Thank goodness. She's getting better?" Tia whispered. They'd told Jewel and Roberto that Mimi had simply gone to visit a faraway friend - not that poor Mimi had been in the waterfall cave covered in grey marks for almost four days. Mimi was Eduardo's sister - a little crazy, the stereotypical crazy aunt, but she was especially kind and sweet to Jewel because she'd never been able to have her own chicks.

"Eduardo, we'll be okay as long as we don't contact anyone... can't we just, for a little while..." Roberto turned away from the wall, not hearing their whispering. He was looking pleadingly at Eduardo. Jewel crossed the gap between her and her father.

"Please? We'll be extra careful. We'll fly over the trees... we really won't go a ling way." Jewel looked up at Eduardo with huge turquoise eyes, trying to persuade him. "You and mom went to see the other leaders the other night... we won't go that far. Mimi went to see her friend..." Tia bit her lower beak.

Eduardo wasn't tempted in the slightest, however - the mention of Mimi had crushed any considering. "I'm sorry, but it's too dangerous." His voice was harder this time. "Nobody goes beyond the surrounding grove. Play there."

"We have!" Roberto protested, going to Jewel's side for support. "Every single day... we're in the same spot. It's so boring. We just want to see the river, at least." That was what they really wanted to see. Eduardo's eyes softened, although he still shook his head.

"No. But... maybe soon." He said, when Tia was frowning down at Jewel and Roberto.

"But when?" Jewel pressed. "When -"

"I said soon." Eduardo said, sharply, making Jewel flinch. "I have to check something." He turned, quickly leaving.

"Eduardo..." Tia rolled her eyes, stepping around Jewel and Roberto. "Don't worry, I'll talk to him. He's just stressed." Tia disappeared after her mate, leaving the two chicks standing in the hollow. Jewel stared after her father, annoyed. Roberto glanced at her, seeing the angry expression. Jewel took after Tia in her looks aside from her feather colour, but she'd gotten her quick temper from Eduardo.

"He's just trying to protect us." Roberto pointed out, although he sounded as disappointed as Jewel felt. "Maybe he's right... it could be dangerous."

"He used to be so much fun." Jewel muttered. She knew it was a bit, although Tia and Eduardo had glossed over the illness. "He used to take me out of the ravine all the time, you know? He, mom, aunt Mimi... they all did. But now they're all so busy and won't go anywhere. Dad's always flying up to the waterfall cave, mom and Mimi always change the subject or give us something else to do."

"Well, you could always sneak away if you're that desperate." Roberto laughed at the suggestion, but his smile disappeared when Jewel gave him a peculiar look - her turquoise eyes danced with mischief and rebellion. "I didn't mean literally... I was being sarcastic..." Roberto was annoyed at himself for putting the idea in her head, then surprised, when Jewel spun round and dashed away. "Ju-Ju! Wait a minute!" He raced after her.

"They'll never know we're gone!" Jewel said over her shoulder. "They're so busy, they'll think we've gone off to play with someone else. They won't miss us!"

"Jewel, the rules are there for a reason!" Roberto protested, as Jewel flew toward one of the cliff gaps, and pushed the vines and leaves aside. She looked through it excitedly, seeing the green trees on the other side. "Think about it... if we're caught, your dad'll go mad..."

"We? So, you're coming too?" Jewel hung off the cliff side, hanging onto a vine with one wing. She grinned mischievously. Roberto's eyes flashed, and he shuffled his feet.

"Well... you do need somebody to watch your back..."

"You're an awful liar." Jewel disappeared into the cliff gap.

"I am not!" Roberto, forgetting the danger and potential trouble. Too excited by the thrill of adventure and rebellion, he raced after his friend.


	3. Impulsive

Tia leaned against the tree trunk with crossed wings, the area over one eye raised. "That was dramatic." She commented, and Eduardo turned around, in surprise. He often came to this branch when he was feeling angry - it had a strange yet calming aroma on it's teal flowers.

"I know I snapped." He admitted. "But Mimi's so sick, Tia. I know she's recovering, but the thought of Jewel or Roberto catching it... it terrifies me. Especially Jewel."

"Favouritism." Tia remarked, teasingly, before turning serious. She padded across the floor, sweeping a wing over her mate's face, before gazing outside. "I know what you mean. She's our baby girl."

"Then you must know why I snapped. We can't let her do what she likes. The illness could be everywhere - we need to protect her." Eduardo couldn't even process the thought of Jewel laying sick, feverish, mottled with grey... like Mimi, right now, and the other two dozen.

"By wrapping her and Roberto in down?" Tia asked, gently. "If we went with them, made sure they didn't interact with other birds... they'd be safer and less desperate to leave. Sooner or later they'll sneak away on their own..." she glanced down through the tree trunk, expecting to see the two where she'd left them, but to her surprise, they were gone. She blinked, and leaned over, trying to see them, but they still didn't appear. _I had to say that last phrase..._ she told herself not to be so ridiculous. They'd probably gone off the play with their friends. Yet paranoia crept in.

 _I'll check, just in case._

 _Meanwhile_

The two chicks flew over the rainforest, feeling the fear of getting caught, but the rush of excitement drowned it out and drove them on. _I can't believe we did this!_ Jewel thought, her heart racing more than it had before. She'd never disobeyed her father before, _ever._ Seeing him yelling at other birds for doing something stupid had both amazed and scared her. It was fun to watch if someone she didn't like was being shouted at, though.

Jewel saw the glistening snake meandering into the distance, and she felt her heart leap. "Look!" She cried, giddily. Roberto's eyes filled with glee as he too saw the river sliding along in the sun, as they began flying toward it, but he was constantly checking over his shoulder, fearing what would happen if someone were to see them this far away from the grove boundary... but the sound of water distracted him. The river glistened below, like a mirror.

The two chicks flew close to the surface of the river, not flying too near - they had been warned about piranhas and alligators, and the other weird and dangerous river monsters. But they were feeling brave with the pride and thrill of their escape. "I dare you to fly closer!" Roberto dared.

"I'll do more than that!" Jewel flew even faster, plunged to the water, and thrust her claws into the liquid. She immediately withdrew them, with a shriek. "It's freezing!" She exclaimed, while Roberto burst out laughing. She kicked the water toward him, showering him with drops, and he gasped.

"Ugh! Jewel!" It _was_ cold. In revenge, Roberto kicked even more strongly, soaking Jewel. With a shriek of delight and annoyance, Jewel and Roberto began to playfight in midair, alternating between chasing and fleeing one another. "I've only flown over this once." Roberto said, with a grin.

"I'll race you down it!" Jewel was distracted away from their playfight, beginning to race down the river. The trees blurred by, as they whizzed along the water surface, not realizing how far they were going. They laughed, carefree, as they slowed at the sight of movement. "Look! Otters!" Giant river otters lived in the river - they rarely came to this area, so this was a rare sight. They slipped in and out of the water, lounging on the bank or floating on their backs, sqeauking to one another and twitching their whiskers. "They're so cute it makes me want to -" Jewel began, but then this moment ended.

Suddenly one of the otters released an alarm call, and all their heads shot up. The relaxed situation turned to panic and terror, as the otters scrabbled to flee as something dappled and golden leapt from the trees. Jewel and Roberto gasped as one of the baby otters just about escaped its jaws, diving into the safety of the river and frantically swimming toward the rest of the group, which was in the deeper water where the jaguar wouldn't go.

To their horror the jaguar leapt in to follow, disappearing into the water - the otters sqeauled sharply, there was a great splashing. But after a few heart-stopping moments, the jaguar remerged, soaked but luckily empty jawed. Growling, it stalked from the river, shaking its glossy pelt, and admitting defeat. As the cat disappeared, the baby otter eventually resurfaced, and it's mother swam over, pulling it to her - it was unharmed.

"Phew." Roberto breathed, but both he and Jewel were shaken by the near tragedy. They looked anxiously at each other, and flew higher, so there was a bigger distance between them and the Amazon surface. He glanced at his friend, who was breathing rapidly, staring at the otters.

"Maybe... maybe we should have gotten somebody to come with us." Jewel admitted, uncomfortably. Suddenly the river looked darker, and the sun had disappeared behind some clouds. Her skin prickled uneasily, but she pushed it down. "Uh... let's keep going down the river, okay? We'll... make sure we're far away from the jaguar."

They flew swiftly downriver, and soon the otters had been left far behind. The sun began to remerge, and their minds began to soothe, their hearts returning to normal pace - but then there was a strange sound. Like a long bellow - it made Jewel jump. It made Roberto freeze. A sound he'd heard once, in a time he wanted to forget.

A bizarre creature - no, machine - was gliding across the water. It had released the strange bellow, and it was the biggest moving object Jewel had ever seen. It was blue and white, a thread of smoke curling up from the top, and several creatures were moving on it. "What are they?" Asked Jewel, in curiosity. They were bald all over except for their heads, although one had a smooth and shiny one, and one had amusingly thick hair on its arms and legs. "They look silly."

"Humans." Roberto said the word in both scorn and terror. Jewel glanced his way.

"Roberto, why are you shaking?" She asked, with a frown. Roberto trembled like a leaf, his eyes bulging. Like Sophia did, whenever someone asked how her father died so mysteriously.

"Humans." He repeated, as if in a trance, feathers on end. His voice was thick with horrible memories. Tree harvesters tearing up his birth place, crushing his family, and then, hours later, weeping in the prison of a tiny cage... before he'd been found by Jewel, he'd been fleeing a life of cruel captivity. Roberto suddenly whirled round, plunging into the trees, unable to control himself. The fear of capture was more than he could bear. Jewel watched in surprise, bewildered.

"Roberto, wait!" Jewel casted one last look at the weird creatures, before darting after him. She tore through the trees, trying to see his blue feathers - where had he gone? For a slightly clumsy flier Roberto had gotten away quickly. He usually ended up crashing into things, losing control, or losing altitude. She heard the distant bellow of the human raft through the trees. _He must be terrified of them... he does mutter 'humans' in his sleep._ Jewel knew little about humans - the only thing, really, was that they had to be avoided. Her parents said they'd tell her why when she was older... were they really that bad, to make Roberto freak out that way?

A realization crept its way into her as she thought about her friend - Jewel shook her head in initial denial. "Roberto!" She called, yet again, looking for blue among the camu camu trees. _I can't see him._ It got worse, as Jewel realized something else. _None of this looks familiar, either._ She'd seen or heard about their territory before the ban on venturing beyond the grove ring had been placed, but Jewel felt it in the air. It just felt different.

And since when did they have an entire camu camu fruit grove? They only had the occasional one or two together, sprinkled throughout their territory. Camu camu fruit trees spread all around her, red and inviting - a whole grove. This simply wasn't part of their territory. Something else red captured her attention. Jewel picked up the crimson feather, edged slightly with a hint of green. Another, a hint of blue and yellow. She frowned, a wall splitting her from the answer, in her mind.

"Who are you?" A voice startled her. She looked up in fear, to see a little bird perched on a branch over her head. _You idiot! This is Rojo's territory. I'm dead..._ The panic made Jewel's mind race, although she was calm enough to observe the stranger. She was a Scarlet macaw chick, shown by the bright red, fluffy feathers, the yellow and blue on her wings. Her head feathers stuck up, short and spiky, behind a pair of coconut-brown eyes framed by white skin that also edged her dainty beak. Her voice, while pleasant, was tinted by a little suspicion and challenging.

"It was an accident!" Her feathers were raised, but she tried to smooth them so not to make the stranger perceive her as a threat. "I'm sorry... I, I -" she was stumbling backwards, to get away, but the red chick was coming closer, driven by curiosity. Jewel shook slightly as she looked her up and down, boldly came within inches of her.

 _"What_ are you?" Asked the Red chick, without a trace of fright, all hostility gone. "I've never seen a blue bird before." Jewel was speechless at this sudden contrast. She even sounded friendly.

"I'm... I'm a Spix's macaw." Jewel admitted, a little fearfully. Her dad was always muttering about the leader of the Scarlet and Green-Winged macaws, Rojo. She'd heard a lot of bad things about him - had bad things been said about her tribe? "I'm Jewel." She said, hesitantly, hoping to get on her good side.

"Eduardo and Tiana's daughter?" Jewel was again surprised, that this bird she'd never met knew this. Then she supposed this wasn't impossible. Leaders and their kids - heirs - were best known. They were taught early about other leaders, who could be trusted. Jewel knew the Blue-and-Golds, Santiago and Hortense, and their daughter Johanna. She'd been warned about the crazy Jorge and his unsettling daughter Kerja distinguished by a deformed talon. The red leaders were a bit unusual. Rojo was someone to avoid, although it was well known that the matriarch was less hostile. Apparently they'd had a son, who would be her age by now, but Jewel couldn't remember his name.

"I am." Jewel said.

"Perlina mentioned you the other day when she came back from the meeting. She's friends with my mom. What are you doing over here?" She still seemed friendly, and Jewel was beginning to feel less uncomfortable. She wasn't angry that Jewel was trespassing. What a stroke of luck - apparently some red kids liked to annoy and tease Spix's. Her friends Manuela and Isabella had once had to avoid a group of Green-Winged kids throwing stones across the border. "I'm Adelaide." She added.

Some distance away, Roberto wrapped his wings tightly around himself. Sweating in a passion fruit tree, he began to ease his breathing. That had been the first sign of humanity since his escape not long ago - and he was still feeling the effects of his captivity. He was still a bit thinner than other chicks from being starved by his cruel captors. He was a little less refined at flying than he should be, since he'd had to learn to fly all on his own with no help. He was weaker, as well - he often lost playfights, even against younger chicks.

Pushing away these thoughts, Roberto drank in the air to calm down. But then he felt a presence, felt somebody coming closer. "Adelaide? Where'd you go?" Roberto's heart leapt into his throat as he realized where he was. The red feathers were all over the place - he was an intruder. He tried to stay hidden, seizing his exposed tail and pulling it to him, shrinking into the tree branches. Then he noticed one of his moulted feathers, laying in full view some feet away. Before Roberto could hide the evidence, a red blur pounced on it, trapping the feather under his claws. His head whipped up, staring at Roberto - at first he looked surprised. Then his red feathers bushed, and then Roberto was trapped in the glare of hostile green eyes.


	4. Red feathers

Felipe was uncertain how to react to this blue stranger. He'd never seen anyone blue, let alone know how to deal with one. Spix's macaws are blue, he remembered. His father had told him some stories, that they were cowards. His mother seemed uncomfortable whenever Rojo bad-mouthed their neighbours, and whispered to Felipe not to repeat anything he said. Regardless, it was a trespasser... he had to do something, right?

"What are you doing here, trespasser?" Felipe challenged, with false anger and hostility - he was more surprised than anything, but he wanted to make sure that this stranger knew he wasn't timid. He'd let kids pick on him as a hatchling, and Rojo had made sure he'd stood up to them. Felipe wasn't proud of it, though. He wasn't like Rojo - he didn't like being cruel in speech, or scratching them across the face. But it worked in getting rid of them. As he often did, Felipe descended into a mist, not considering the consequences.

Roberto leapt backwards, stumbling in his haste to get away. "I don't want any trouble! I didn't come here on purpose!" he was afraid. He had only ever really interacted with his own kind. He'd encountered two Hyacinths once, and that hadn't ended well.

"On purpose? You're pretty far in! Our home is a minute's flight away!" The red chick retorted. "Nobody ventures this far without figuring out they're trespassing. Or are you just dumb?" Roberto tried not to feel angry, but he felt his skin grow hot.

"No." He protested. "I wasn't looking where I was going, we were flying over the river -"

"We?" Felipe interrupted. "You're not alone?" Roberto's heart began to race with panic. Jewel! Where was she? Separated in a territory full of red macaws... Eduardo was going to murder him if he found out. "What's this, an invasion? Just wait till my dad finds out! He'll love this..."

"Your dad?" Roberto's heart plunged. "Not Rojo." Of everyone to run into, it had to be his son! This must be Felipe. "Look, just let me find my friend, and we'll leave. Nobody has to know!"

"You're not going anywhere!" Felipe exclaimed, although there was a slight reluctance and uncertainty in his voice. He was so unsure of what to do - could he let him go? He shouldn't... unfortunately Roberto didn't identify the hesitancy.

"You and I are about to have a problem." He said, through narrowed eyes. "Your dad's not such a great guy, you know. If he was so great, he'd be less of a brute!" Felipe forgot his reluctance. His feathers bushed.

"Who do you think you are, vine-head?" He poked one of Roberto's long crest feathers, tugged it slightly, enough to hurt.

"Get off!" Roberto leapt back, but not before he gave Felipe a rather brutal shove. Without thinking, Felipe retaliated. He sprang, crashing into Roberto, and knocking him off the branch. A whirlwind of red and blue, they tumbled down, crashing through twigs, bouncing off wide leaves and branches. Roberto clawed at Felipe in anger, as they crashed to the ground. Felipe sank his beak into one of his head feathers, began to pull - Roberto screeched loudly, tried to shake him off.

Jewel's head whipped up, hearing it. "Roberto?" Her feathers lifted - then she and Adelaide heard a commotion.

"Felipe?" Adelaide sounded surprised, identifying the voice Jewel didn't. Her eyes widened. Jewel and Adelaide looked at one another, and then began to hurry toward the sounds of struggle. In a surprisingly short amount of time, they reached the scene - Roberto, writhing in pain, while Felipe pulled on a crest feather. Jewel stared, unable to process the situation before her. "Felipe, what are you doing?" Adelaide spluttered, in horror. "Let him go!" yet Adelaide didn't move, too fearful to get involved. Jewel finally snapped to reality.

"Stop it!" Jewel seized her friend, pulling him away from Felipe - there was a yelp from Roberto, as the crest feather was finally pulled out. Felipe spat out the feather, and tried to attack again, but Adelaide finally intercepted.

"Felipe, calm down! Control yourself!" Adelaide shouted. Felipe stopped, staring at Adelaide as he often did - before the mist cleared. He looked at the blue female who was whispering to Roberto about his feather, and he was slowly nodding to show he was okay. Realizing what he had done, Felipe looked at the feather he had torn out with guilt, but made no sign to show he would apologize.

"Roberto, what happened?" Jewel demanded. She looked over her shoulder at Felipe, eyes blazing, leaping to assumption. "You idiot!" She hissed, turning on him. "What's your problem?"

"Hey, I'm sure there's an explanation for this!" Adelaide protested. She forgot their friendly encounter moments ago, to defend Felipe. "You have no right accusing him -" Jewel glared at Adelaide, about to retort, also forgetting the friendliness.

"He provoked me!" Roberto insisted, before Jewel said something she would regret.

"Liar!" Felipe snapped, and it seemed as though their fight would begin again as they lurched toward each other. Adelaide seized his shoulders to stop him flinging himself forwards, and Jewel planted herself between the red macaws and Roberto, wings slightly spread to show how defensive she was.

This was a disaster. It was breaking all the rules. Physical contact between tribes in the time of the disease, trespassing, attacking other tribe birds, disobeying her father's orders... Jewel knew how bad it was. _This can't possibly get any worse..._

"What's going on down there?" Jewel and Roberto froze. _Obviously, it can._ Felipe and Adelaide went rigid as they were all cloaked with shadow. The four were dwarfed by a group of adult Red macaws - and then the two blue chicks were surrounded.

"We're doomed." Roberto said, simply.

 _Later_

Felipe gazed at the guarded tree, deeply ashamed. "Well, I hope you're proud of yourself." Perlina stood over him, wings crossed. "You attacked a chick who'd crossed into our land accidentally, even when he offered to leave. Name-calling, tearing out feathers from his head? I thought I'd raised you better than this, Felipe!"

"Mom, you haven't heard my side of the story!"

"Well, then enlighten me." when Felipe didn't, Perlina, despite the anger of the situation, smiled gently. "That's because I just said your side of the story, isn't it? Felipe?"

"Uh... yes." Felipe was annoyed at himself for admitting it so easily. "Mom, I just wanted to show him how strong we were."

"Don't talk like that."

"Like what?"

"Like your dad." Perlina's blue eyes flooded with fear. Of course she'd never told Felipe this - but Rojo scared her sometimes. She'd loved him since they were children and still did, and he didn't speak badly to her. But how he spoke of other tribes frightened her. He called the Blue-and-Golds cowards because they were so laid-back; he was dangerously insulting to Hyacinths, even to patrols passing. But it was the Spix's macaws that suffered the most verbal abuse and anger.

Whenever Perlina casually mentioned she'd seen a patrol or run into Tia, Rojo would spring to ask if she'd overheard any tribe secrets. He wanted to expand their territory, but, out of spite, he wanted to expand into Eduardo's land after their fallout years back. Perlina was always talking him out of it or changing the subject to make him forget the idea, but she always heard him discussing the possibility with his friends, over and over. When she and Rojo weren't around, what kind of a leader would their son be if his father influenced him? She didn't want Felipe to be like Rojo.

"I'm sorry, mom." Felipe said, although he didn't understand. Suddenly there was the sound of wings outside.

"That'll be him now." Perlina turned. Felipe edged behind her, fearing the angry scolding Rojo was about to give him. Felipe braced himself.

"You brilliant child." Rojo was standing there, smiling with glee, but Felipe didn't feel brilliant. He felt threatened. Wasn't Rojo angry that he'd provoked the Spix's? Broken the rule of no contact? Where was the wrath, the shouting, the pour of shame upon him? "I'm so proud of you. You have gifted your tribe with a golden opportunity."

"Rojo, what are you talking about?" Perlina asked, as confused as Felipe was. "Why aren't you -"

"Pearl, this is what we've been waiting for. We can use these two kids to our advantage." Rojo's eyes gleamed deviously - a plan was forming in his head. "If those blue idiots want them back, they'll have to pay for them. We'll need something in return. Perhaps... a bit of new land."

"What?" Felipe's eyes widened, and Perlina looked horrified.

"Have you lost your mind?" She almost shrieked, feathers on end. "We've spent years reaching a fragile peace! Do you honestly want to throw it all away to get a few extra trees?" Suddenly Felipe understood, and his heart began to thud as it sank in. _This is my fault. Are the Spix's macaws about to suffer because of me?_

"They've had it coming." Rojo replied, coldly.

"Rojo, they've been crippled by the illness!" Perlina shouted. Several heads turned outside. "And that's another thing. Their tribe is infected worst of all..." Her eyes darkened. "They could be carrying it. The longer they're here, the more dangerous it'll be for us!"

"I think they'd be showing the symptoms." Rojo snorted.

"Illness doesn't affect everyone. But they could be carrying it."

"Don't be ridiculous! We can't waste this opportunity. Do you know who they are? One of them's Eduardo's daughter!" Rojo pointed out, and Felipe went rigid. The situation was getting even worse...

"Jewel? Tia's little girl?" Perlina looked faint - she paused to cough. As Felipe crouched beside her, he thought she felt unnaturally warm, but he quickly forgot it. "No! I won't let you. You need to give up this poisonous dream!"

"When are you going to realize that your friendship with Tiana is over, Pearl?" Rojo bristled. "You need to stop living in the past!" He and Perlina glared at each other, the tension crackling. Felipe began to back away, not wanting to see the argument.

"Felipe, excuse your father and I for a moment." Perlina said, to his relief. Felipe dashed outside, flying down the kapok tree trunk, to escape the explosion of shouting. He flinched as voices erupted, and flew faster to get out of earshot. The kapok trees were enormous - they had several hollows in each trunk, meaning multiple families lived in a single tree. There was muttering as he passed each hollow.

"They're arguing again." Whispered Manil.

"I don't know what Perlina ever saw in him." Replied his mate. "I suppose opposites attracted..."

"Adelaide?" he poked his head into the lowest hollow. He was greeted by Juanita, Adelaide's mother. She looked very similar to her daughter, except her eyes were blue - she was an earthy shade of red, with a hint of orange. He smiled at Juanita as he always did, but all she offered was an awkward 'hello', before slipping past him and leaving. Felipe frowned, wondering what had happened. She was usually so talkative, always asking how he was - Juanita was his mother's best friend, so she and Adelaide were close to his family. Not necessarily Rojo, but Felipe and Perlina.

"What's the matter with Juanita?" He asked, turning into the hollow, where Adelaide was. He noticed she wasn't alone - she was sitting with Azalea. Azalea was small and pretty with hazel eyes, a flick of dark red feathers sitting on the back of her head. There was a hint of green to her blue and yellow wings, because her father had been part Green-Winged, and her mother Juliana pure Scarlet. Juanita and Juliana were sisters, making Adelaide and Azalea cousins.

"She's worried." Adelaide said, anxiously. "She's worried about them being here."

"Why is your father keeping them here?" Azalea spoke up. "It's a stupid idea! They could be giving everyone the illness!" Adelaide's father had been claimed by the illness while Azalea's father hadn't wanted a chick - he'd done a disappearing act. This was why they had such a bond - they'd lost both their fathers in one way or another, and they'd grown close over this shared missing piece. They were more like sisters than cousins.

"He thinks he can use them as hostages." Felipe mentioned, uncomfortably. "To... to bargain for land."

"That's mad!" Adelaide exclaimed, with shock. Her pretty brown eyes were flooded the same fear Perlina had. "Felipe... why did you attack the blue guy in the first place? If you hadn't, we wouldn't be in this mess..."

"He was annoying me." Felipe said, defensively.

"That's not good enough." Azalea said, eyes blazing; she had a quick temper. She was a little younger than Felipe and Adelaide too, meaning she tended to be more short-fused. "You could be starting something. Rojo wants to get rid of their tribe, and you've let it happen!"

"Don't be so dramatic." Felipe retorted, and they glared at one another, not for the first time. He and Azalea were in the middle of a tiff - he'd been throwing berries for fun earlier, and one had accidentally hit her in the face. He would have apologized, if he had stopped laughing soon enough. He'd make it up to her somehow, but not right now - they had other priorities.

"You know it's true, Felipe." Adelaide looked concerned. "They don't deserve this. I was talking to Jewel before you ruined everything - she's actually really nice." Adelaide and Jewel had had a brief talk - mostly questions about how Jewel had gotten there. She'd explained to Adelaide that it was accidental, and Adelaide believed her.

"What?" Felipe stared. "Adie, she's Eduardo's daughter. How could she possibly be nice? No Spix's macaws are nice!"

"You're so judgemental!" Adelaide said, irritably, to Felipe's surprise - that had escalated quickly. Like Azalea, Adelaide had quick temper. Any other time she was sweet as star fruit, but Adelaide often snapped at a slight push. "Maybe if you hadn't leapt to attack her friend, maybe you would have seen they're not all bad." Adelaide got up, flying past Felipe. "Good luck fixing this."

"Adelaide, wait..." Felipe tried, but she had already flown away. He sighed, his heart doing something funny. Behind him, Azalea rose, and brushed past him.

"Well done." She said, sweetly. Felipe rolled his eyes, trying to think of a clever comeback, but he had nothing.


	5. Fracture

"Jewel, just give up." Roberto covered his face with a wing. "Accept it - we're not getting out of here. This tree is airtight. You've tried everything." Jewel desperately tore at the trunk with her beak, her claws, anything. They'd been shut in this tree for hours, and it was driving her mad. What would their tribe - let alone Eduardo and Tia - think? Would they be frantic out of their minds? Had they even noticed they'd gone? Her young and wild imagination was persuading her they'd be trapped here _forever..._

 _It's a kapok, genius. Thick trunk..._ She picked up rocks and hammered them into the wall; she'd thrown herself at the walls a few minutes before. Roberto was bigger than her, maybe it would work if he did it. "Roberto, throw yourself at the wall!"

"A, I saw what happened when you tried it - so no, and B, is that a genuine request, or you purposely trying to make me hurt, because I told you to give up?" Roberto tried to lighten the situation without success. Jewel simply glared.

"You know, we wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't freaked out at the first sight of humans. Its all your fault!" She said, accusingly, throwing down the stone, turning on him. It wasn't the first time in their imprisonment - they'd been blaming and bickering for hours, making subtle insults, but now it was heating up. Roberto's eyes flashed at this statement.

"If you knew what I'd been through, you'd understand, but you're not understanding in the slightest." He began to bristle, wanting to bite back. "You're just like Eduardo! He doesn't understand anything, either." It was a known fact he wasn't the most sympathetic or understanding of leaders - even if he hadn't ever been this way to Roberto, he wanted to get back at Jewel for her remark. It worked, for Jewel's eyes blazed with turquoise fire.

"Don't disrespect my dad!" She spat.

"That's a bit rich coming from someone who insisted on breaking his most important rule." Roberto said, triumphantly.

"Still didn't stop you from coming with me!" Jewel retorted. For a moment they thought they might attack one another.

"Keep it down!" They flinched and silenced when the guard outside hit the rock slab keeping them inside the tree. Jewel and Roberto angrily faced away from each other, an awkward and bitter silence lingering like a swarm of mosquitoes. Eventually, the anger dissipated. Roberto bit his tongue, stopping himself from fracturing his friendship further. Meanwhile, Jewel tried to salvage it.

"Alright. Maybe I don't understand. But I can't understand you, because you're Roberto-who-never-talks-about-his-past." Jewel admitted, testily. She immediately regretted the address - she had no control over her words. She didn't think before she spoke - her mother warned it could get her into trouble some day. Roberto considered for a moment, but then thought better of it.

"I can't tell you what happened." Roberto said, stubbornly. "All I can say... is that humans are bad. They're killers, Ju-Ju." It was there Jewel realized Roberto wouldn't be willing to discuss it. She twisted her head, saw the clouded look in his eyes, and despite her frustration, she didn't push further. Jewel didn't respond - she slowly slid down the wall, admitting defeat. "Sorry." Roberto said, surprising her.

"I'm sorry too." Jewel sighed, and Roberto offered her a small smile. She gazed at the ceiling, and so did Roberto. "This is my fault..."

"Yeah. It kind of is." Jewel tossed a pebble at Roberto in annoyance.

 _Meanwhile_

Perlina held her head in her wings, rocking ever so slightly, trying to hold back the river. Next to her, Juanita tried to console her with little success. "I don't know him anymore, Nita. He's breaking my heart." She coughed again, feeling a sickly sensation - she assumed it was from the worry she felt.

"You feel warm, Perlina." Juanita mentioned.

"It's Brazil, its hot." Perlina dismissed Juanita's concerns; but it wasn't just the Brazilian heat. She was beginning to sweat and burn, but she put it at the back of her mind. Her distress was too much. "Rojo's changed so much. Before our fallout with the blue macaws, he didn't care. He didn't like them, he didn't hate them. But after that big fight between him and Eduardo... he's wanted to get rid of them. He's just obsessed with destroying them. I thought when Felipe came along, he'd... soften. Be the bird I fell in love with again. If anything he's gotten worse."

Perlina didn't know why Rojo had become so twisted that he was keeping two kids prisoner - he had never been the most intelligent of birds, but surely he realized that Jewel and Roberto could contaminate their tribe members. Having them here was reckless - they were only just recovering from the illness. Rojo was risking spreading it all over again, not to mention they were risking the two kids catching the illness themselves. If Tia's daughter caught it, she'd never forgive herself, or Rojo.

"Perlina, what can you do? Your mate... when he wants something, he'll have it." Juanita wasn't good at comforting - in fact, she was terrible. When her sister Juliana's mate had left her to raise Azalea all alone, not wanting to raise a kid, Juanita hadn't been there for Juliana enough. Now, there was an air of tension and awkwardness between them. Adelaide and Azalea, despite only being cousins, seemed to have become what she and Juliana once were - sisters. "Why don't you leave him, if this is how you feel?" She offered.

"I can't. I still love him." Perlina did despite everything. She knew Rojo loved her too. He called her Pearl because she was so precious to him, and despite the awful things he said sometimes about others, he could be so sweet to her. "And it's not fair on Felipe. Everyone needs a father." Juanita winced, reminded of her failure to comfort her sister when Azalea's father had left. _Not everybody does... Azalea's turned out well so far, even if she has a little anger there._

"Have you tried speaking to him again?" Juanita asked.

"I did just before I came here. He won't listen to me." Perlina said, defeated. "Juanita, I can't let him keep Tia's daughter and the boy here. It's reckless, dangerous, and unfair. They came here accidentally - I asked the boy how he'd gotten there, he explained. The girl was angry - she wouldn't talk to me, or anyone. She's like Eduardo."

"Eduardo'll declare war if he finds out." Juanita commented, with worry. "But... are you sure the boy was being truthful? Maybe Felipe was the honest one..." Perlina laughed loudly.

"I know a liar, Juanita. Felipe's like Rojo - he lies, he doesn't think before he acts. The Spix's wasn't lying."

"Are you -"

"I'm very sure, Juanita. Rojo twists anything positive we hear about them." Perlina said, sharply. She covered her face. "Why is he being so cruel?"

"Let's be real, Perlina. He's never been quite right since his fight with Eduardo... when he hit his head..." occasionally Rojo would suffer from 'skull-splitting' headaches, and almost every day he'd mutter something so horrible that it took her breath away. He'd never had headaches or said such poisonous things before he and Eduardo had fought each other years back. Their viscious battle had ended when Rojo had crashed, head-first, into a rockface Eduardo had been hovering before. The force of it had rendered him unconscious for days, and when he'd finally woken, Rojo hadn't been the same.

"I know. But I have to do something." Perlina got up. "Nita, I'm about to do something mad. Make sure Rojo doesn't do anything to those chicks..."

"Where are you going?" Juanita asked, fearfully. But she had an idea. "So much for Felipe not thinking. He gets it from you, as well!"

"Trust me." Perlina said, but suddenly, she stumbled. Juanita went to ask, but Perlina shook her head. "I'm fine... you've always been such a worrier." Perlina felt dizzy for some reason. "I'll be back." She flew off into the trees, one of her neck feathers falling out as she did. Juanita stared after her, before stiffling a cough. She placed a wing on her forehead, suddenly feeling hot. Her worry knotted in her stomach.

Perlina muttered as she flew. "He's such a greedy... Felipe'll grow up thinking being this cruel is normal..." What had happened to Rojo? He honestly thought imprisoning two kids was a good idea? Her worry made her feel strangely delirious, but then she heard a voice.

"Mom?" Felipe intercepted his mother, out of the blue. He'd seen her flying; she wasn't usually out, now. It was getting late. "Where are you going? Dad's wondering where you are." Rojo had sent him away to look for Perlina while he had a discussion with the 'elders' - a big group of the tribe's best advisors, and Rojo's inner circle. He'd proudly said to Felipe that he'd one day be a member, that he would lead them. But Felipe wouldn't. They were snobbish, weird old birds to him.

"Felipe." Perlina turned to him. "Tell your dad I'm with Juanita. Go home, and see Adelaide. I'll see you later."

"But I just saw Nita -" Felipe protested, but his mother was gone. He blinked; she'd just gone towards the border. Around there, he'd heard the desperate shrieks - "Jewel", and "Roberto". His heart filled with dread as he remembered Perlina's friendship with Tia was something Rojo muttered about.


	6. Fallen

Perlina parted the vines, feathers on end. She was trespassing for the first time ever - but she knew the way round. Years ago, passing through the Spix's land wasn't calling trespassing. It was called paying a friendly visit or passing through. Besides, it hadn't been that hard to find Eduardo and Tia. They were shouting loud enough.

Tia and Eduardo were covered in dirt and leaves, looking as though they'd just flown through a cyclone. "Jewel! Roberto!" Tia screamed. Her face was tear-streaked, her eyes red from both crying and flying so fast the wind whipped them. _"Jewel!"_ Her breath was shallow and fast from panic - like any mother whose child was lost in the dark.

"Mila, Kida! Any sign?" Eduardo desperately asked two young female birds, who had emerged from the right.

"No!" Kida replied, sweeping unevenly long head feathers back over her head. "They're not in the brazil nut grove. We saw another group, they said they'd looked in the flower trees."

"There's nothing!" Mila insisted. "We've been looking for hours. Tala and Marlo saw nothing, either."

"Then keep looking!" Eduardo demanded. "We won't stop until they're safe at home." Kida opened her beak, but then stopped herself from suggesting the horrific possibly. Perlina stopped being an observer - swallowing her fear, she called out.

"Eduardo! Tia!" She flew into view. Tia whirled around, eyes flooded with surprise.

"Perlina!" She exclaimed, while Eduardo was immediately defensive. Kida and Mila's feathers rose, and they gathered like bodyguards around Tia and Eduardo.

"What are you doing here?" Eduardo asked, bristling - when the last time a red macaw had been this far into their territory? Not in years.

"Forget your anger for one minute." Perlina snapped, fearlessly closing the gap between her and the four macaws.

"Close enough," hissed Kida, with hostility. Eduardo and Kida's eyes blazed with unfriendliness, while Tia and Mila looked cautious - albeit less hostile.

"Listen to me. I'm on your side. And you know me, Kida. Your mother was my friend." Kida looked away, although her bristling didn't seem as intense as she remembered those days. Perlina thought about what Rojo would say or do - but she didn't worry. There was no turning back now. Perlina looked steadily at the two leaders. "It's about Jewel and Roberto. I know where they are." Eduardo's bristling faltered. He opened his beak and went to ask, but Tia got there first.

"What?" Tia cried, all caution gone. Perlina was still her friend - she trusted her. She dived forwards, grasping Perlina's shoulders tightly. The desperation was unparallel to anything Perlina had seen before. "Where are they, Perlina? Are they okay?"

"For now." Perlina said, grimly. She looked at Eduardo and Tia, but moreso Eduardo. "I need to tell you something. But you have to be calm, and not leap to any assumptions..." a few moments later, Eduardo was shouting every curse under the sun, directed at Rojo; Kida and Mila were shouting through the trees, calling for help; Tia trembled like a leaf. Her daughter, trapped, in the midst of kapoks... with Rojo in control? Perlina wanted to comfort her - former? - friend, but she wasn't sure how Tia would react. As they waited, Perlina felt the sickly feeling beginning to return. Suddenly she felt dizzy.

Perlina watched as the four blue macaws grew to a group of eight, as Mila and Kida were heard. _But eight wouldn't be enough, would it? I suppose it'll have to do. I can't get them out alone..._ "Perlina, take us there. Please." Eduardo pleaded, hostility fading. Perlina looked at the group, and then at the trees. Rojo was going to scream at her like never before...

Later, Jewel stirred, and raised her head. She was curled up on the floor, on her side, a nest of leaves for a bed. A few inches away, Roberto was slouched against the wall, head feathers cascading over his closed eyes and moving slightly as he breathed. It was incredibly dark - Jewel could hardly see him. They'd been here hours now. But had that been a voice? Maybe she had been dreaming...

 _"Psst."_ It said, again. Jewel slowly surveyed the tree, knowing it couldn't be Roberto - he didn't talk like a female. "Jewel. Over here." She gradually turned, towards a tiny sliver of light coming through the tree trunk. She rose and approached the source of the sound, and peered through it. It was so thin, so small, she could barely see anything - but she glimpsed red.

"Adelaide?" She whispered. Adelaide backed up a little so Jewel could see her better. Her brown eyes were anxious.

"I'm so sorry about this. Are you alright?"

"We're fine. Adelaide, can you do something?" Jewel asked, hopefully.

"I can't. Rojo'll throw me and my mom out -" Jewel couldn't tell if Adelaide was being serious or not. "-and even if I could, it's still -"

"Who's there?" The guard heard her voice. Adelaide looked, stricken, at Jewel.

"I'll try ask Felipe to talk Rojo out of it, I have to go... I'm sorry, Jewel." There was the sound of wings fluttering as Adelaide hurried away. Jewel stared after her through the gap, before resting her forehead on the wall, trying not to scream in frustration _. At least she came to see you were okay,_ a voice said, encouragingly. _Fair play to her._

Jewel slid back down to the floor, feeling empty, but full of unspeakable shame. Rojo wanted to use her and Roberto to bargain for land... was her tribe about to lose valuable food sources, because of her? Her father would be furious, her mother would be disappointed, Mimi would be shocked when she "got back from visiting her friend"...

Suddenly the rock slab moved. Jewel's head whipped up - had Adelaide changed her mind, and come to help them? She prodded Roberto, but then her heart fell. Roberto awoke - they were faced with a male Scarlet. Tall, criss-crossed with scarring - he bore a slight resemblance to Felipe. But even without that evidence, there was no question as to who he was.

"Let... us... go." Jewel said, saying each word slowly. She leapt off the floor, dusting leaves off herself.

"I don't think so." Rojo replied. He came closer. Jewel met his icy gaze boldly, unflinching, while Roberto crouched behind her, filled with fear. He ducked his head and kept his eyes locked on the floor, while Jewel bristled and held her head up to show she wasn't afraid. Rojo snorted with laughter. "It's your own fault your tribe is about to suffer. You shouldn't have been trespassing."

"It was an accident!" Roberto protested, despite his fear. "Your... your son provoked me. He wouldn't let us leave... we could have if he hadn't been so..."

"Listen here, maniac!" Jewel spat, making Roberto jump. "You won't win. My parents will find out where we are! They'll come and get us..."

"Your dear parents don't even know where you are, stupid girl." Rojo gloated. Up in the tree, Adelaide, Felipe and Azalea listened.

"I regret this." Felipe whispered.

"Do you, really?" Azalea said, voice heavily ladled with sarcasm.

"Ssh!" Adelaide hissed, urgently.

"What do you want, you red snake?" Jewel's voice travelled through the kapok.

"You gotta admit, she's got some guts." Azalea commented. "If I said that to him..."

But then Rojo stopped. Felipe, Adelaide, and Azalea strained their ears, wondering if he was whispering, but then they realized he wasn't speaking at all. There was the sound of struggle; then impact. Jewel cried out, and Roberto released a high-pitched wail. "What did you do? Roberto!" Jewel shrieked, making Adelaide, Felipe and Azalea go cold.

"Maybe _now_ you'll talk with some respect." Rojo sneered. Felipe suddenly dropped through the branches, finding the gap Adelaide had looked through before. His breath caught, as he saw Roberto on the floor, a bead of blood trickling down his wing. Jewel held his head off the floor, all boldness gone, as she saw the long scratch Rojo had just carved into Roberto's wing. Jewel looked up at Rojo, terrified, as Roberto clung to her, whimpering slightly with pain. Felipe stared at his father through the gap, in disbelief. He'd never seen him strike anyone - a chick, the same age as Felipe. _How could he do that?_

"What happened?" Adelaide pressed up against him, trying to see too, with Azalea still in the upper branches.

"He just clawed him!" Felipe whispered, and Adelaide gasped.

"That's barbaric!" She cried. "Where's your mom? She wouldn't allow this -"

"Guys! We have company!" Azalea's voice sounded from above, high-pitched. "They're all blue!" Felipe and Adelaide froze, and instinctively looking up; just long enough to see a flash of blue overhead. Azalea came tumbling in her haste to get away - Felipe just managed to catch her in his wings. Azalea scrabbled to get out of the embarrassing situation, and the three leapt around the trunk, staring.

"Rojo! Get out here! Where are you?" a booming male voice woke up almost everybody in the kapoks. Inside the tree, Rojo froze, and slowly turned around, knowing the voice.

"What?" he whispered, incredulously. "How..." The guard outside suddenly appeared.

"Rojo! It's the -"

"I know who it is, you fool! Watch them!" Rojo barged past the guard, swarming outside. Not that they could go anywhere - Roberto's wing was turning more red. He shook with pain, and Jewel tried to soothe him, whispering in his ear. She'd barely - hadn't - taken notice of who had just arrived. The guard stared at the scene, the drops of chick blood Rojo had trodden out.

"I'm so sorry, Beto! I didn't think he'd take it out on you..." Jewel was beginning to weep. Outside, the trees were turning red as tribe members emerged from their hollows, whispering in suspense and confusion. Rojo rushed out to meet the intruders.

"Well, if it isn't -" he began, but then he stopped. "Perlina?" Felipe went rigid next to Adelaide - her wing found his, as they looked out - eight blue macaws, and a red one with a hint of pink to her plumage. _My mother._ Rojo saw Perlina, hovering beside Tia. Perlina looked away, not making eye contact with her mate.

"I'm sorry. I had to, Joey." Felipe couldn't believe it. His mother had gone to fetch Eduardo and Tia?

"You betrayed me, Pearl." Rojo sounded as unbelieving as Felipe, his voice hoarse.

"Enough! Look at me!" Eduardo shouted. His eyes burned with pale green fire. "Give me my daughter and Roberto back, right now, before I break your wings off!" The red tribe gathered, afraid, confused - a few angry. Some muttered "I told you so" - they'd been expecting Rojo's plan to fail all along.

"You want them back? You'll have to pay! Give me some of your land, and you can have them." Rojo resisted. Some of his inner circle, and those who hated Spix's macaws, gathered to support him, hissing at the Spix's macaws, who hissed back.

"Please, Rojo. What would you do, if your Felipe was held from you?" Tia tried to appeal to his better nature. Felipe let go of Adelaide, and flew closer to hear better. He noticed how his mother was clasping her forehead with a frown, how she shook slightly. "Please, give us them, and we'll leave..."

"This is very simple! If you want them back -"

"Rojo..." Perlina muttered, swaying a little.

"Rojo, our land is full of the illness. You're putting your tribe in jeopardy by using our territory! We're in short supply of food at the moment, we need all the resources we have! You don't need more land!" Eduardo shouted. Next to Tia, Perlina was frowning. She shook her head slowly, eyes closed, and paused to feel her face, her neck. A few feathers came out at her touch. She began to breathe faster. Perlina pushed back the feathers on her wing - there. A faint, grey mark.

"Oh, no." she whispered. Tia looked her way.

"Perlina?"

"Listen here, Rojo!" Eduardo's voice rose, drowning out Perlina's. "I don't care what you want! You have no right keeping my daughter here! You give us our kids now, before I knock the living daylights -"

"You're a selfish coward!" Rojo shouted back. "I will never let your children go! Not until -" Perlina's wings held the sides of her head. Then she began to sway.

"What's wrong?" Tia asked; but then she remembered. Mimi had swayed. It was there Tia saw a thick wad of neck feathers fall - exposing the mottled grey. Perlina looked at Tia with tears in her blue eyes, as Tia stared at her in horror.

"I'm sorry, Tia." She whispered, before her knees gave out.

Juanita came tearing through the crowd, screaming Perlina's name. Felipe came bolting, crying out, but Adelaide and Azalea caught him before he could touch his infected mother. Rojo fell to his mate's side, ignoring the blue macaws, the potential sickness Perlina could be giving him. He cradled Perlina's head, as she began to burn, as she shook violently. Felipe struggled against Adelaide and Azalea.

"Help! Somebody help her!" Rojo shrieked, staring at his tribe. _"Now!"_ But nobody dared. Tia managed to touch Perlina's wing once. She tried to whisper soothing things, but Rojo had locked her in his pale stare, and the rest of the blue macaws who were staring in horror. Tia let go of Perlina, distracted by the hatred and blame in Rojo's stare. "You exposed her. _You did this."_ He whispered, and Tia went cold.

She barely felt Eduardo pulling her back, away from Perlina, whose glazed eyes fixated on her friend. Two of their birds slowly slipped away, going to the tree that held Jewel and Roberto. Tia was barely aware of what happened next - it was as if she was on another world.


	7. Grief

Felipe watched, heart in his throat, as Azalea's mother, Juliana, emerged from the tree Perlina was in. Juliana had been exposed to the illness countless times without falling sick, so she was the one who spent dangerous time around sick birds who needed help. _Why! Why couldn't Perlina be safe from it instead of Juliana?_ Felipe knew he shouldn't wish that, because otherwise Azalea would be in his position right now. But yet he would have given anything to make Perlina be the one who was safe.

Rojo ran over, demanding good news. "How is she, Juliana? Is she going to be alright?" But Juliana had tears in her eyes, as she slowly shook her head, and Rojo became eerily still. His heart sank, slowly, with realisation. A numbness casted over Felipe, as Rojo slowly turned away, and moved past him without even acknowledging he was there.

"Rojo... you should say goodbye." Juliana whispered, urgently. "She hasn't got long. She wants to see you -" Rojo didn't say a word. He was in too much shock to react. He didn't even _look_ at Felipe. Surely, his father should be comforting Felipe, or sharing his grief with him - any interaction. But he just walked away, leaving his beloved Pearl without saying goodbye. Felipe stared after him, shocked that he was just going to leave her on her own. Juliana's head sank, before she turned to Felipe. "I'm so sorry, darling." She murmured. Felipe stared at her. "Why don't you come with me..."

"No!" Felipe declared, fiercely. "I'm not leaving! I'm staying."

"But - you'll risk..." Juliana attempted to dissuade him, but something made her stop. Juanita hadn't been able say goodbye to her mate, when he lay dying - Juanita hadn't been the same since not getting that chance. That was why she'd been cold and blunt, in comforting Juliana when the love of her life turned out to be a coward who wouldn't take responsibility for Azalea. She closed her eyes, knowing it was something Felipe had to do. He needed closure. "Don't touch her, then."

Felipe pushed the moss curtain aside. There she lay, like a goddess, surrounded by flowers which had been left by wellwishers. She had burrowed herself in them, wanting to be surrounded by the sweet, comforting scent of flowers. Her breathing was laboured, shuddering. _Deathly._ Her neck was almost bald, covered in splotches of grey. This was what a worst case of illness looked like. This had been what Adelaide's father had looked like before he died.

"Mom?" His voice was barely a whisper.

"Felipe." Perlina's eyes were like blue glass, but she was still vaguely aware of what was going on around her. She saw her son there, he saw her. Even on the verge of death, Perlina was his mother. "Please... you can't be here. You'll get sick." Perlina was too weak to protest as Felipe came even closer, ignoring her pleas. Perlina prayed Felipe was one of the few immune to the illness, like Juliana, because she was powerless to stop him getting dangerously close - and she couldn't resist not saying goodbye. "Where's your father?" she had to see him. She had to say goodbye, that she loved him, and most of all, to make him vow to leave the Spix's macaws alone.

"He... he..." Felipe stopped himself saying something horrrible. "He wanted to be here." He mumbled. Perlina swallowed hard and closed her eyes. She couldn't, after all.

"Felipe... I need you to listen... I'm not sure how much longer..."

"Don't talk that way! You'll get better." Felipe began, but then he began to stammer, his voice faltering. Deep down, he knew the truth. He began to shake. "Mom, I... I can't..." This wasn't how it was supposed to be. His mother should be grey with age, dying surrounded by loved ones, years from now - not now, while he was barely weeks, months old, and she still so young.

"You'll have your dad, Adelaide, Nita..."

"I don't want them." Felipe whispered. "I want you." Perlina's heart broke at this phrase.

"Felipe, listen to me." Perlina said, gently. "I won't be here to talk him out of his plots anymore. You have to, for me." Felipe's green eyes widened. "Do what you think is right. You can't be like him. I love him, but I know exactly what he's going to do." Her voice rose with strife. "I can't be in peace, knowing where he's going to take you! Promise me, Felipe. Promise me you won't follow him." Follow him where? Felipe didn't understand, but he had to comfort her.

"I... I will." Felipe said, hesitantly, because he was confused.

"You'll understand..." Perlina began to cough, her eyes becoming distant. Felipe desperately looked for some water, but couldn't see any. But then she surprised him, reaching out to touch his wing - she'd looked too weak to even do that. "Go. Before it takes you too." She whispered, chest shuddering with effort. Her world was darkening. She took one of the flowers, and placed it in his wing. Felipe closed his wingtips over it, and the tears began to spill. The start of a sob escaped his throat.

"I can't... leave you..." the tears seeped through his closed eyelids.

"You never will." Perlina couldn't kiss him goodbye. She instead curled her wing around one of his moulted feathers, and drew it to her. "There is... nowhere on this world you can go, where I won't be there with you." Felipe let go of her wing, and began to slowly back away. He looked at the flower in his wing, and then back at Perlina, back and forth, as he realized it wasn't a nightmare - it really was happening, now. "Go, Felipe." She coughed, before the hollow fell silent. Felipe didn't see the blood trickling from her open beak, but he knew why her breath was still.

 _Meanwhile_

Tia slowly emptied a passion fruit shell of its seeds, eyes fixated on the fruit. Death had just flown by on a black eagle, and made off with a sweet, kindly bird. Tia knew it. She didn't know when, but she knew Perlina was dead - or if in doubt, dying. But she knew Perlina was gone, deep down. As if to confirm it, the tribe fell silent as a Harpy eagle passed, high overhead. Tia watched it leave, feeling as though a part of her had died too.

"How are they?" Eduardo's voice made her jump - the passion fruit shell fell to the floor. Eduardo blinked in surprise, for Tia usually had a sixth sense. She was not easily crept up on or surprised.

"They're fine." Tia said, tightly, as she began to clean the fruit off the ground, scooping it back into the shell. "It's still edible... the floor's clean." Eduardo watched her do it, for some reason frozen to the spot. Something wasn't right. He could feel it, see it in the way Tia was moving. She seemed stiff, aggressively throwing the fallen seeds back into their shell, her wingtips shaking like trees.

"Tia." he said. Tia made no visible reaction, but she said it slowly and carefully.

"Don't... talk to me."

 _"Tiana._ Speak to me, you haven't left the tree since -" Something within Tia spontaneously snapped. She seized the passion fruit shell, and violently threw it his way. Eduardo threw himself on the floor, and the fruit hit the wall, slowly sliding where his face would have been. His head snapped up, eyes wide with shock.

"Why do you think I'm not, Eduardo?" She cried, with anguish. Tia was weeping, her eyes blazing with rage, grief and distraught. "She was _my friend!_ And she's gone!" Eduardo stared at her, before realizing she meant Perlina.

"I... I thought..."

"What, after your fallout with Rojo, me and Perlina would just stop seeing each other, stop being friends? No! She never stopped being my friend!" Tia buried her face into her wings. "This is killing me, Eduardo. The disease, everything! It's more than I can bear, and if anyone else I love dies..." her voice cracked. "I just... can't." There was a long silence.

"I... I had no idea how much she still meant to you." Eduardo said, quietly. "I'm sorry, Tia." Tia forced back tears.

"I lost my friend. I... I can't lose anyone else. We almost lost Jewel and Roberto today." Tia pressed her mate's wing to her cheek. "I can't lose either of them." Eduardo worriedly comforted his wife, glancing upwards.

"I doubt they'll be leaving anytime soon, anyway. Not after today... hey. Don't cry, Tia... don't cry." Tia wept against him, feeling weak.

"I won't be leaving," Jewel whispered to Roberto, in the upper part of the tree where their nests were. He glanced her way, the scratch on his wing covered in a crushed plant to help it heal. Tia had sent them to bed, but they'd been awake for hours, unable to sleep. "I won't be so stupid from now on. I've made my mom cry..."

"You weren't stupid." Roberto replied, comfortingly. "I flew in the wrong direction. This is my fault."

"No. It's mine, because I had to be so clever to sneak away, didn't I?" Jewel turned over, so her back was to him. "I'm sorry about your wing. I had no idea he'd do that to you." Roberto looked uncomfortable at her guilt, but made no comment, only gently peeling back the crushed leaves to check on his wound. Jewel lay in the moss, thoughts whirling round her head, trying not to weep.


	8. Return to light

_A few months later_

Felipe kept his eyes on the leaves overhead, as he leaned comfortably on a tree trunk. The sunshine was warm, not glaringly bright, in a blue summer sky. The Amazon river glittered through the trees, the trees barely stirring - it was as if there was no air today. No breeze, so almost everyone was in a sleepy mood. It was so humid, it was no wonder Adelaide had fallen asleep.

She leaned on a tree trunk opposite to him, eyes closed. The sun streamed through the canopy, the light dappling her neck and her face. Her eyelashes shadowed her cheekbones, her chest rising and falling evenly. There was something very therapeutical in watching her sleep - after his mother died, he'd started sleeping in Juanita and Adelaide's hollow, unable to sleep in the same hollow as Rojo. Seeing her, looking so serene, had helped him feel less torn up inside.

"Are you listening, Felipe?" Said a loud voice, and Felipe dragged his gaze away from Adelaide.

"I wasn't until now." He replied casually, and a few of the other teenagers scoffed with laughter. The teacher glared at him - Felipe had a tendency to annoy the adults. He'd developed a love of sarcasm and insults, and sometimes he wasn't as polite as he'd like, but he couldn't help himself.

"Charming." The adult replied, bitterly. "I'm telling you something that could save your life, you ungrateful -" he stopped himself, gained some self control. Felipe could get away with some of the things he said, because of who his father was, and - although nobody dared say it - because they blamed his new attitude on losing Perlina so tragically.

They now whispered Perlina's name, because no one wanted to remind Felipe or Rojo of their pain. Rojo had done a disappearing act since her death. Not physically - he spent most of the time holed up in his hollow, when before his voice was heard five minutes early wherever he went and he loved making his presence known.

Felipe had had a single conversation with him since Perlina, and that had been a week after she died. Now it was months, and Rojo still hadn't made an appearance. The tribe crazy bird, Sol, whispered that Rojo had lost his mind. Felipe didn't pay attention to a bird nuttier than a Brazil nut, but there was definitely something strange about Rojo now, from the few glimpses Felipe had had of him.

"I was telling you how to deal with a snake, but if you'd rather be bitten, I suppose -"

"No, please continue." Felipe said, at first watching the talk continue, but then his gaze returned to Adelaide, who was still asleep without being noticed. Azalea, on her other side, was trying to pry open a nut, making no move to stir her cousin. _Maybe I should wake her up, before he notices._ Felipe reached out and shook a tree branch that ran alongside her. The rustling leaves stirred her, and then finally woke her up. Adelaide yawned and drew her wing across her eyes, drowsily looking at the branch, and then a smirking Felipe.

"I know it was you." Adelaide said, smirking back, playfully throwing a berry at him, before her brown eyes turned to the adult, who was telling them what to do when faced with snakes. These 'survival classes' would be helpful if the adults taught it with more passion and enthusiasm - this was just dead boring. They had nothing better to do than tease one another.

Felipe grinned at Adelaide, and she rolled her eyes as he looked away, although she too was watching him in the corner of her vision. They'd gotten closer since Perlina had died, because Adelaide had been the one to comfort him until he'd been brave enough to show his face. He'd retreated into himself - he'd spoken to nobody except her until she had encouraged him to leave the hollow, but thanks to her gentle encouragement, Felipe had gotten his energy back. Neither was entirely sure why they'd always felt so close.

"How's Juanita?" Azalea leaned towards Adelaide, in a whisper, and Adelaide's smile faded. Felipe tipped his head toward them. Juanita had fallen dangerously ill about a week after Perlina had died - he and Adelaide now shared a hollow with Azalea and Juliana, too afraid to be in the nest Juanita had been found in, with her burning fever.

"Her temperature's going down... she's starting to regrow some feathers." Adelaide said, although she still sounded worried. "She's just been so sick for so long..."

"She'll be fine, Adie. She's strong." Felipe said, encouragingly. Adelaide looked a little doubtful - so few survived the illness, and Juanita had seemed so frail combined with the grief of losing Perlina.

"I hope you're right." she said, anxiously, and Felipe reached between them to place a wing of comfort upon hers. Adelaide's eyes rested upon his for a moment. Azalea glanced at the pair, sensing something between her cousin and Felipe.

 _Meanwhile_

Jewel sat on a branch that extended over the Amazon, one talon dangling off the edge, her wings wrapped comfortably around herself. She rested her chin on her wings, gazing downstream. She'd grown in the past few months - she now reached her mother's shoulder.

"What are you doing out here, all on your own?" Sophia landed beside her. Sophia had grown into a very pretty teenager, with sleek plumage, dazzling blue eyes and a cool, fiesty attitude - although Jespa seemed to put a damper on her mood whenever he was around. Luckily he kept to himself and didn't tend to go out much, so this only happened when Sophia returned home to him and their mother. Any other time, Sophia was one of the brightest birds, if not a tad secretive and not the most open individual in the world.

"I don't know - I just needed time to think, I suppose."

"About what?" Sophia sat next to her, plucking some berries. "Your mom and dad are in a good mood today - even my mom. Mimi's never been better! When I left she had a mud mask on."

"Yeah - recovering, and not with her make-believe friend." Jewel had been angry to learn that Eduardo and Tia had lied to her about Mimi being sick, and it had taken a while for her to forgive them.

"We were kids, Jewel. They probably just didn't want to scare you." Sophia chewed on a berry. "Well, it's over now. The travel ban's been lifted, that's something to feel good about." The tribe leaders had met the other night to update the situation, and had agreed that they no longer had to be constricted to just their nests now that the illness was dying out. "I wonder why Rojo didn't turn up?" That had been on everyone's minds. He'd sent Juliana on his behalf, because she was safe from sickness. The illness was fading - no one else had fallen sick for almost a month, the infected were either 'free of their pain' or recovered.

"He didn't come because of what happened to Perlina." Jewel said, miserably, and Sophia remembered. "I still feel..." she hesitated, wondering how much to tell Sophia.

"What?"

"As if what happened to her... was because of my stupid decision." It had been playing on her mind since that night - in the talons of Kida, Jewel had just got a glimpse of Perlina in Rojo's wings, while Adelaide restrained a screaming Felipe. She hated being around Tia, who was devastated by the death of her friend - she felt responsible and horrible, seeing her mother so unhappy, even if she seemed alright now.

"Jewel, you can't think like that. Besides, Perlina wasn't with our group long - and they weren't sick. She can't have caught the illness off us, to collapse immediately. Symptoms don't show for a few days. You're talking about minutes in which she possibly caught it and collapsed. She must have caught it beforehand." Sophia reassured Jewel somewhat with this logic, and she felt the tension loosen a little.

"That does make sense..."

"I barely see you smile. Even Roberto's songs haven't been able to cheer you up. Show me the smile!" Jewel twitched the corners of her beak, and Sophia laughed. "There it is. Oh, you might need to rescue Roberto soon."

"Why?"

"Trix and Catia are chasing him and begging him to sing for them." The twins, like many of the girls, seemed to adore Roberto. They couldn't be blamed - who wouldn't fall for that voice? Well, Jewel hadn't. He was good-looking and had honey in his voice, sure, but their friendship was purely that of a brother and sister.

"Alright." Jewel rolled her eyes, following Sophia, her worries melting away. "He kinda likes you, Soph. Why don't you go after him?"

"Oh Jewel, I don't think he does." She laughed.


	9. Not all right with the world

Jewel and Sophia landed on a branch, knowing where to go from the luxurious sound of Roberto's voice. He had finally given into Trix and Catia's pleas, and was now singing a song of his own invention in a fluid, silvery voice. The males looked mesmerized, even envious, while many of the females were gazing dreamily like hopeless fangirls with the exception of Manuela, who had eyes only for Carlos. Sophia was trying not to giggle from the obvious, ridiculous show of affection from the twins and a group of females across the clearing they didn't really talk to.

The feather Felipe had ripped out had grown back now. Roberto's head feathers were now rather long, to his neck, yet he still had a small one sticking up over his forehead. He was now rather tall, his body visibly healthier and more full, where before he'd been a little scrawny and underfed. His eyes were blue and bright, always relaxed and confident. He'd kept his kind and charismatic demeanour, and he was a bit more assertive now, like Jewel was. She'd had a good influence on him, although he hadn't picked up her rebellious tendencies. He was a bit more sensible and tended to listen more, even though the mention of humans still made him behave a bit strangely, muttering indistinguishably and flying a mile.

"If I sing anymore I'll lose my voice!" He exclaimed, in protest, when Carlos asked for an encore. "I'd love to stay, but I need to be somewhere..."

"At least stay for five minutes." Tobias said. He was one of the survivors of the sickness - and therefore, incredibly lucky, like Mimi was. He'd caught it very young, but he'd bounced back. His girlfriend Isabella had also survived being struck down around the same time, which was probably why they were a pair; they'd bonded in their time in quarantine and this had turned to affection as teenagers. They were part of Jewel's outer friendship circle along with Trix, Catia, Carlos and Manuela, although Roberto and Sophia were her closest friends who she spent the most time with and she found Trix and Catia a little bit annoying sometimes. Occasionally they'd spend a little time with some Blue-and-Gold macaws including the leader's daughter Johanna, although most time was spent with Spix's.

Jewel leaned on a tree trunk, enjoying the sunshine; she loved these days. Mornings filled with fruit and flowers, happy conversations filled with optimism, especially now that only five of their tribe members were ill. They'd lost almost forty birds, a cruel blow to their low numbers, but things were finally beginning to look up. Tia and Mimi were back to their old selves, and Eduardo's coldness to Jewel for being so careless had melted away. He'd - as well as Tia - had given her and Roberto the silent treatment for a while, until they'd gotten over what happened. Just when Jewel thought all was right with the world, Manuela recalled something unsettling.

"Apparently Adao saw Rojo the other day." Said Manuela, and Jewel and Roberto immediately looked up. Roberto's scratch had healed, but Rojo's name made him - and Jewel - uncomfortable still.

"What?" Jewel asked, in fear. The first time somebody had seen Rojo, since Perlina's demise.

"Adao was near the Brazil nut grove border with Marcella. They saw him, inches from the border line!" This brought the entire group's attention. The twins dropped the berries they were eating, Sophia, Carlos and Tobias stopped their chatter - all eyes moved to Manuela.

"Did he say anything? How did he seem?" Carlos asked, with worried interest. Manuela shuffled her feet.

"Apparently... he was... off. He gave them 'the evils', as Adao put it." Manuela said, uncomfortably. "Then, spontaneously, he began yelling abuse at them. Stuff like, 'enjoy it while it lasts!', and then he just disappeared." This was strange and unsettling. The first time somebody had seen Rojo since the death of his mate, and the first thing he'd done suggested the mindset of a guy who wanted to cause trouble. Jewel was immediately on edge.

"Why didn't Adao say something, Manuela?" Jewel's feathers were on end at the thought of Rojo being so close to their land and behaving so strangely. "That's serious! Adao's a kid, and Rojo shouted that at him? Why didn't _you_ say something? He's your little brother."

"Exactly, he's a kid." Trix reasoned, calmly. "I mean, they're always making stuff up..." Naturally, Catia nodded in agreement with her near-identical sister. To Jewel's surprise, the others looked as though they didn't believe the scenario, either.

"Hey, don't suggest my brother's a liar." Manuela looked irritably at them.

"It's not personal... I mean, kids that young do say all sorts of things..." Carlos said to her. "Manni, remember when you were yelling about that snake in your nest, for fun? You almost gave your mom a heart attack!"

"Why would he make something like that up?" Jewel asked, flabbergasted at how relaxed they seemed about this. They weren't taking it at all seriously, joking about it. She stood up quickly. "I'm not going to bury my head in the soil. I'm going to tell my father."

"Woah, is that wise?" Roberto asked, nervously, before muttering under his breath. "We only just got back into his good books, Ju-Ju. Do you honestly want to risk him blowing his top or going over there to start a war, for possibly no reason? Did you learn _nothing_ from our experience?" Jewel stiffened at the memory of their imprisonment, which she still felt responsible for, but she held her ground.

"I don't learn, Beto." Jewel turned away, and flew off through the trees in anger. Roberto watched her go, stomach knotting in fear and unease, while Catia rolled her eyes.

"She's moody, Roberto. Always has been. Of course she won't tell Eduardo, she'll just sit in a tree and sulk for a while." Roberto gave her a look of annoyance at her rudeness, although he privately agreed. Reluctantly, he turned away from the direction of Jewel, while Sophia patted the moss next to her. _I guess they're right. I'll let her cool off._

Jewel flew into the ravine, headed for her tree, but when she got there, it was empty. "Dad? Mom?" A little breeze stirred some down on the floor. "Great." She turned, scanning the ravine, spotting Mimi - and, like Sophia said, she was still wearing a mud mask. "Mimi, have you seen dad?" She called. Mimi looked up, taking the petals off her eyes.

"Your mom and him went to talk to Santiago and Hortense about sharing a grove of star fruit! They offered a few days ago, and he's gone to take them up on the offer." The Blue-and-Golds? She couldn't interupt a meeting between leaders... Jewel felt a hot flash of frustration at the delay. "Something important?"

"No, nothing..." She didn't want to stress Mimi out - she hadn't long been out of quarantine, evidenced by the down beginning to regrow on her neck which was smattered with coconut pulp to encourage feather growth. "It's not important, it can wait. Anything you need, aunt Mimi?" It would kill some time.

"Dear, do me a favour! Please dash over and fetch me a Brazil nut... I've got a real craving this morning..." The brazil nuts... where Rojo had been. Instead of feeling intimidated, Jewel was excited at the prospect. Maybe she could look herself, see if the threat was worth telling... nobody could accuse her of being nosy or reckless, then.

 _Meanwhile_

Adelaide cautiously watched Juanita, from where she observed from the safety of a eight metres. Their sick birds - with the exception of Perlina - were taken to a hollow, dead tree outside the Kapoks. It was sheltered from the elements and protected from predators, the gaps stuffed with leaves and packed with earth - the only entrance was covered by a sheet of heavy slate at night, and it was from here Adelaide peered down.

Only three of their tribe members were sick now - her friend Miguel, a Green-Winged macaw who slept in a cluster of vines, his breathing sounding much better than it was the last time she was here; an elderly bird she didn't know who was also looking better; and her mother. On the soil floor, Juliana was helping Juanita drink from a water-filled coconut shell. They didn't know she was there - she wasn't supposed to be this close, but Adelaide thought she was a safe distance.

"How's Adelaide, Azalea? I haven't seen them for so long..." Juanita sounded a lot stronger than before. She was alert, moving around more.

"Adelaide's growing into a kind and beautiful young macaw, Nita. Felipe's taken a shining to her." Juliana smiled mischievously, for the first time in ages, at her sister. Adelaide listened with a glowing heart - but she'd barely heard the compliment. She'd heard Juliana mention the part about Felipe. He liked her, too? "Azalea's a bit... I don't want to say rude. But she drops subtle insults to those she dislikes - like Felipe. She always seems to have a bit of anger buried. The sarcasm she uses... Adelaide seems to be her only real friend." Adelaide listened in concern; was that what Juliana thought of her daughter? To be fair, Juliana wasn't being personal or unfair - what she said was true. If Azalea had been eavesdropping, she'd be infuriated. Azalea was moody a lot, so whenever a boy drawn by her looks tried to talk to her she would make her disinterest and hostility obvious. Adelaide thought it was something to do with the fact that she'd been born unwelcomed and unwanted by her father.

"She's a teenager, Juli." Juanita laughed, with confidence. "She's just moody. She'll grow out of it."

"I'm glad you're getting better. I think you'll be out once your neck feathers start growing back." Juliana smiled. She went to mention Perlina, but thought better of it. "I'm sorry for giving you the cold shoulder recently. I was just so selfish..."

"No, you weren't. I should've been there for you when... you know who left you and Azalea. You were there for me when my mate died, and I wasn't there for you when you needed me." Juanita smiled slightly. "Let's start over, shall we?" Adelaide's beak twitched with the beginning of a smile - her mother was recovering, and it looked as though she and Juliana were patching things up. _She's okay. I'd better go, before they spot me up here._

Adelaide turned into the sun, fluffing her feathers, before there was movement in the corner of her eye. She glanced over, surprised to see who it was. Rojo? She hadn't seen him in a long time; he looked a state. His feathers rougher and more unkept than usual, he looked as though he hadn't preened himself for weeks. For some reason, every time she saw him - even before Perlina had died - he'd looked shifty and suspicious as though planning something, and the look hadn't changed, if anything now he looked as though he was hiding something more. He looked a bit nervous, glancing around to ensure he wasn't being followed. Unable to stop herself, Adelaide began to follow him toward the Brazil nut grove.


	10. Strange encounters

_What is he doing?_ This question relayed through Adelaide's mind as she followed Rojo at a distance. This was where the Brazil nut grove ended. He should be slowing down - he was so close to the border, why? This was a stupid thing to do, especially after what happened. He wasn't slowing - closer, closer to the border he went, flying with intent...

"Rojo! Stop!" Adelaide cursed herself for calling out, but she couldn't stop herself and it was too late to hide. He'd whirled round and spotted her there. His yellow eyes grew narrow with unexpected hostility, as he saw her. He had never liked her, Adelaide was sure - he always spoke to her in a grouchy manner. She couldn't think why, he just never had seemed to like her.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded, with classic moodiness.

"I'll ask the same thing of you!" Adelaide didn't know why she was being so confrontational - sometimes she would confront, most times she watched but didn't act. This was a time to challenge him. She flew out and hovered between him and the border. "Are you trying to go over there?"

"What's it to you?" He asked, irritably, but there was no sign of denial. Adelaide flooded with fear.

"Are you mad, Rojo? It's not worth it! If someone sees you there, you'll lose a lot of respect and if Eduardo finds out you've been trespassing -" she dreaded to think.

"I don't know what my son sees in you." Rojo said, abruptly, very effectively silencing Adelaide. "You're not that special, are you? He doesn't know what he's getting himself into. All relationships end with the death of one - there's never a happy outcome. Love makes you soft. Your mother had a lucky escape."

"How dare you." Adelaide couldn't believe Rojo was suggesting the death of her father was a good thing. "My mother hasn't been the same since! Juliana was so devastated when her mate left she hated Azalea until she grew to love her! And you, losing Perlina - you need to grow -" suddenly Rojo barged into her, sending Adelaide crashing into a tree trunk. Her side erupted with pain, and Rojo pinned her to the tree.

"You are not worthy to speak her name!"

"You hypocrite! You say love is pointless, yet you still love Perlina -" Adelaide cried out as Rojo suddenly threw his full force against her, making the bark scrape her on the tree trunk. He dropped her, and fled into the grove, straight into the Spix's territory. "Get back here! Rojo!" Adelaide followed without thinking, still in pain, until it forced her to stop. She clumsily landed on a branch, holding her side, where she had initially struck it.

"Stay out of my business." Rojo hissed, before disappearing into the trees.

"Don't be an idiot!" Adelaide shouted, not knowing whether he heard her or not. Anger bore through her; what was Rojo hoping to achieve? _He's gone crazy. He's bruised me..._ her side bolted with pain when she prodded it, her skin darkening when she pushed back the feathers. Cursing under her breath, she forgot where she was, and didn't proceed to leave.

After a few minutes, Adelaide heard a distant rustling. Her head whipped up, and she looked toward the sound - a few leaves moved slightly, as if from a breeze, but she felt watched. Adelaide rose to her feet, feathers lifting, as she saw a flash of cerulean. There was there was the sound of wind whistling through feathers, and then a flash of blue appeared. With a cry, Adelaide spun round and raced away, but she was being chased - she heard a voice shouting, telling her to stop.

Adelaide wove through vines and branches, headed back towards the red macaw territory - she looked frantically over her shoulder, and her pursuer was gone, she thought - until something crashed into her side. With a shriek of surprise, Adelaide was knocked onto a lower branch.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Adelaide looked up, eyes wide with fear. A Spix's macaw bristled threateningly on the branch above her, eyes ablaze with hostility and suspicion. She leapt down, standing over Adelaide. She shuffled backwards, a wing extended to protect herself and keep the stranger back.

"I'm not looking for trouble... it was an accident!" Adelaide unintentionally set off an echo in her own mind. _It was an accident._ A similar scenario such as this set up in her mind, the speakers reversed, both much smaller and fluffier. There had been an innocence about that time. Suddenly she knew why the macaw looked so familiar, with her turquoise eyes, the curls at the ends of her head feathers - her name was so easy to remember. "Jewel?" She asked, a little cautiously, in case it wasn't her.

"How do you know my name?" Jewel asked, suspiciously, not recognizing her. Adelaide filled with relief that it was her.

"Don't you remember?" The pain in Adelaide's side faded. "Don't you remember me?" She looked up hopefully.

"I don't -" Jewel began, but then she got a closer look. Suddenly the brown eyes, the spiky head feathers, looked familiar. She noticed how the yellow stripes on the wings were thicker than the blue fringing the wing edge, which she remembered now. "Adelaide?" She said, remembering the name. "Oh. I didn't know it was you. Sorry." Adelaide breathed a sigh of relief, as Jewel extended a wing to help her up.

"It's alright. I've been through worse." Adelaide brushed moss off herself. Jewel stared at Adelaide, unsure what to do. She was trespassing - trespassers had to be sent on their way. But Jewel felt no desire to ward Adelaide away, and she didn't feel threatened... what should she do?

"What are you doing here, then?" She prompted.

"I, uh..." Adelaide didn't know whether to tell her that Rojo was also trespassing, right now as they spoke. "It was a mistake, as I said." She lied, but Jewel didn't seem to believe her.

"Are you sure?"

"Do I look like a Brazil nut thief?" Adelaide asked, and Jewel unintentionally cracked a smile. Both began to relax, not feeling threatened. "It's been a few months. How have you been?" Adelaide didn't know what else to say.

"I'm alright. My dad hated me for a while after what happened, but he's calmed down now." Jewel couldn't believe she was making small talk with a red macaw, especially with the tensions between their tribes. But it felt so easy, so natural. "I heard about Perlina. I'm really sorry... that must've been hard for Felipe and - Rojo."

"Felipe took it so hard. Perlina meant a lot to everyone." Adelaide had cried too when Perlina passed - she'd been there as long as she could remember, always a part of her life. She realized she had little time - the thought of a vengeful Rojo lurking here, with Eduardo and Tia's daughter unaware, filled her with dread. "Rojo's... it's probably good I ran into you. I need to tell you something."

"What?" Jewel asked, oblivious.

"He's... erratic, recently. I think he's... well, he hates your tribe. So I'd be careful if I were you." Adelaide was careful with her words, fearing he was watching - she didn't even know why she was telling Jewel this. Jewel went to mention the fact that Rojo had been at the border, but she didn't quite trust Adelaide yet. She barely knew her.

"Well, thanks for the warning." Jewel said, unsure what to make of it. She continued to stare at Adelaide.

"Jewel? Jewel!" A distant voice called, and Adelaide stiffened. Jewel's eyes blazed with panic.

"Go, quick! That's my dad!" She exclaimed, in a high-pitched voice, and Adelaide gasped - if Eduardo of all birds found her here, so close to Jewel, she'd be dead. Then she would be accused of trespassing, when it was Rojo's fault she was here. "Go, before he sees you..."

"Thank you," Adelaide replied, swiftly gathering herself together. "Remember what I said!" She spun round and disappeared into the foliage, leaving Jewel wary and very confused. But it confirmed it, surely - Rojo, acting erratically? It perfectly matched the idea of him frightening Adao with a strange and vague "enjoy it while it lasts". It? As in the grove? She frowned with puzzlement.

"Jewel!" She jumped and whirled round. Eduardo, Roberto, Tia - and Mimi, to her surprise - were there. It was a good thing they'd heard them coming. Having Adelaide caught by her entire family would be worse. "Mimi said you were here." Eduardo said. "We need to talk."

"Why?" Jewel asked, stiffly, expecting a confrontation.

"Family time, silly!" Tia said in a teasing voice. "You're so serious, my sweetheart. We're just going to show you a part of the territory you haven't seen." They turned to lead her away; Jewel stared, at a loss, as Roberto hovered beside her.

"Did you find anything?" He asked. Jewel prepared to tell him what just happened, but then stopped herself.

"Not really." She said - by telling, they'd know about Adelaide being so far in their side of the Brazil nut grove. That would lead to an unnecessary confrontation... but could she trust Adelaide? She'd spent less than ten minutes of her life with her - perhaps the concern was a facade? Maybe Rojo had sent her... or was Jewel being just like her father, leaping to conclusions and unwilling to trust?

Adelaide, heart pounding, shut herself into Juanita's hollow, the moss curtain pulled across the entrance. Almost as soon as she did, it twitched back open. "Adelaide, you alright?" Azalea stood there, the sun flashing off her teal-tinted wing. "You flew so fast, you flew right by me." Her concerned gaze was almost always reserved for Adelaide.

"I'm fine. I -" she certainly couldn't tell Azalea, of all birds, about Rojo's idiocy and seeing Jewel, daughter of Rojo's mortal enemy. Azalea couldn't keep a secret, and she trusted nobody. "I was just seeing my mom."

"Really? I was just there myself. Mom says Nita's out tomorrow." Adelaide could barely smile despite such news. "Don't look too pleased about it, then."

"Sorry, I am. I'm just distracted." Adelaide insisted, feeling a little anger rise.

"But -"

"Go away, Azalea!" She snapped, spontaneously. Azalea's eyes flashed with hurt, before she ducked out of the tree. "Azalea, I -"

"Forget it. You clearly don't want to talk." Azalea retorted, from outside, before the sound of her flapping wings faded.

Adelaide exhaled, letting her head fall back. "Darn it." She muttered - she had a tendency to suddenly snap, and that wasn't wise to do to her sensitive cousin. She considered following Azalea, but couldn't compel herself to. She refocused on her other crisis, unsure what to do.

Telling Felipe about Rojo would just stir up trouble. She had no proof, Rojo would obviously deny it - knowing her luck, he'd get one of his inner circle to say he was with them at the time he apparently crossed the border. Then she'd look like a liar trying to cause trouble. And Rojo wasn't someone she wanted to be on the bad side of.

"Adie?" _Why won't nobody leave me alone, today?_ She twisted her head, prepared to say 'leave me alone' - but it was only Felipe. "Azalea just went off in a huff. Told me to mind my own business, as usual - hey. You alright?" He tilted his head at the peculiar expression on her face.

"Oh, I'm fine, just... lost in thought, I guess. My mom's out of quarantine tomorrow." Adelaide finally smiled. Felipe's eyes flooded with joy and relief.

"Adelaide, that's brilliant!" He exclaimed, pulling her off the ground to give her a hug.

"It is!" Adelaide's worries melted away in his embrace. She suddenly realized that they were very close together, a stillness over them both. They momentarily stared into each other's brown and green eyes, before they came to their senses. Coughing awkwardly, they put a little distance between one another. "Well... I'm going to go apologize to Azalea." She gave him an awkward smile.

"Okay." Felipe watched her go, wondering why he didn't want her to leave.


	11. Unprovoked

Jewel wasn't sure why, but as they began flying through the Brazil nut grove, she was positive something was missing, yet she wasn't sure what it was. She slowed, so she flew with her mother. "Mom, where are we?" She asked.

"We're in the grove still." Tia replied, without hesitation.

"Are you sure? It doesn't look like it." Jewel couldn't spot a single Brazil nut. Yesterday, she'd flown through this area - when the branches had been bristling in brown. Now it was all green from lack of nuts, as if a bunch of locusts had swept the area and devoured each one. Tia looked around for a long time, before a little uncertainty crept into her teal gaze.

"We are... those are Brazil nut trees." _Without the nuts?_ Jewel wondered. Eduardo had been silent for a while, but when he heard this conversation, he glanced back at Tia, slowing to fly at her side.

"I don't remember it being this sparse." Eduardo whispered, falling behind with Tia. "I always tell them not to overpick them. But I was only here yesterday, they were so much more plentiful..." Jewel glanced ahead, where Roberto and Mimi flew, unhearing.

"-I'm very desperate for a Brazil nut, yet I can't seem to see any..." Mimi was looking around in confusion. Jewel watched her carefully, worried that her illness could come back with a vengeance.

"Wait! I see one." Roberto exclaimed, and Eduardo and Tia looked over. Roberto had, with an eagle eye, spotted one hanging from a branch heavy with leaves, so only a little of the nut was visible. It was as if it had been missed, and the rest visible ones taken. Roberto snapped the stalk, and brought it back to Mimi.

"You are a saint, dearie, thank you." Mimi dropped onto a branch, and began wrestling her way into the nut shell. "I'm surprised we can even break into them, only Jorge's savages are said to be able to get into these things..." Or Hyacinths, being the more polite terminology. Roberto landed on a branch above, looking for more, but disappointment and unease grew more obvious in his blue eyes. Jewel noticed her parents looking around in worry.

"We'll be right back. We're just going to have a quick look around." Tia said, leading Eduardo away. He glanced back.

"Watch them, Mimi." Privately, Jewel rolled her eyes. She wasn't a kid, she could take care of herself. Besides, Mimi wasn't the most dedicated. She said a half-hearted 'okay', completely absorbed by her food shell battle. Jewel wandered away, but not before telling Roberto she'd be just through the trees.

"Alright." He said, not hearing - or caring - about Eduardo telling Mimi to keep an eye on them.

Jewel flew into the branches, gazing towards the Red macaw territory, thinking about her odd encounter five minutes ago while she scanned the branches to compare the nuts - sure enough, she saw plenty on their side. It was strange, but for some reason, her thoughts were focused on Adelaide, not on Brazil nuts. She couldn't think as to why Adelaide would warn her about Rojo, in doing so betraying him. Red macaws, whether they were Scarlet or Green-Winged, couldn't be trusted. "Red like blood!" Sophia's grouchy brother, Jespa, often declared. Eduardo trusted Jorge more than Rojo at this point in time, and that was saying something.

Perhaps Adelaide was being devious, as Jewel had first figured, sent by Rojo to spy and send false messages. Yet, as Jewel remembered, Adelaide seemed to genuinely care about her wellbeing - she'd disagreed with what he'd done, seemed actually quite afraid of him, when she'd come over to the tree Rojo had been holding Jewel and Roberto captive in. She'd even come to see if they were alright. Adelaide didn't come across to Jewel as the devious type; she had an innocence and genuinity about her.

 _Looks and actions can be deceiving..._ she reminded herself, but this slipped from her mind. Jewel wondered. She, strangely, wanted to see Adelaide again. Why? She didn't quite know. To clarify the message? Figure out her game? Or because Adelaide seemed to have a decent personality, a quality Jewel sought in her friendships? She'd failed on that one by befriending Trix and Catia, who thought a good conversation starter included criticizing one of their absent friends. The twins liked nit-picking about Manuela's stubby head feathers and muttering about Sophia being secretive about something. Even so, they were Spix's macaws. Adelaide was a Red, surely that was worse?

 _Speaking of red -_

Something heavy collided with Jewel, sending her flying several feet. Jewel crashed onto a branch, and found herself crushed by a brutal weight on her neck. Her cry for help was abruptly cut off by a ragged set of talons. Not the eagle she expected, but a hideous, maniacal looking Scarlet macaw. "What are you doing on my land, theif?" Hissed the creature.

"What? _Theif?"_ Jewel struggled to speak around the claws on her neck. "I've done nothing! Who do you think you are?" Yet she immediately knew it was Rojo. How could she forget his face? The yellow eyes, the distinguishable crack in his beak, the scars. She even recognized the odd way one of his claws seemed to turn out to the side at the end of the toe - one of those claws had scratched Roberto's wing and made it bleed.

"Why else would you be in our side?" Snarled Rojo.

"I wouldn't be on your side, if you hadn't thrown me here!" Jewel had been a few wing flaps from the border, but she'd been so careful not to cross it. She'd only been so close because their side was oddly full of nuts and the trees on their side had been plucked bare. "It's your fault! I bet you did it on purpose." She taunted him, but she had a feeling her half-hearted accusation was true. Rojo didn't go to defend himself immediately - there was a long pause before he spoke.

"Don't be ridiculous." He narrowed his eyes. "You're going to pass on a message for me."

"What message?" Jewel spat, still trying to pry his talons from her neck.

"That -" suddenly a shriek split the air. Rojo's weight disappeared, as Eduardo launched himself at his enemy - but not before Rojo's claws briefly caught Jewel's shoulder, as he was torn away from her. With a shriek of pain, Jewel leapt across the border, into Mimi's wings.

"Jewel! What's going on? What did you do?" Mimi asked, in a high-pitched voice, leaping to assumptions.

"I didn't do a thing!" Jewel retorted, wincing at the scratch on her shoulder, before screeches distracted them. In midair, Eduardo and Rojo collided. Feathers of red and blue flew - Eduardo's talons momentarily horrified Jewel as she mistakened the colour for blood, before she realized it was only a clawful of torn out red feathers. Rojo was shrieking in frenzy, in a bizarre mix of rage and delight; as if he relished this fight with his most hated enemy. _As if he wanted this to happen!_

Rojo's claws lashed out, and Eduardo released a squawk - a few drops of blood speckled a leaf. Roberto emerged from behind Mimi, and opened his wings to fly in and help - but Mimi stopped him dead. "Don't you dare! If you do, I'll kill you before that red idiot does!" Roberto's face filled with alarm, and he remained rooted to the spot. She pushed Jewel over to Roberto, began shrieking. "Tia! Tia, quick!"

"Enough!" Eduardo shouted, but it didn't stop Rojo - he continued to fight, not slowing, until a brutal swipe of his wing knocked Eduardo onto a tree trunk. Tia was the last to arrive, thundering through branches upon hearing violence. Instead of shouting for the fight to stop, Tia leapt forwards - it was too late for Mimi to stop her. Rojo's claws slashed toward Eduardo's neck.

"Dad!" Jewel screamed, but before his talons made contact with Eduardo's throat, Tia latched visciously onto Rojo's back. Squawking, her claws began raking in defense of her mate. Jewel watched, utterly stunned, as her usually calm and collected mother went beserk - even Roberto looked speechless.

"Tia, stop!" Mimi cried, in fear. For a few moments Rojo tried to fight back, but as Tia's claws turned redder, he finally cried out in defeat.

"Alright! I surrender!" Tia immediately stopped her brutal attack. Hissing at Rojo, she helped Eduardo to his feet. Rojo landed awkwardly, breathing heavily - Jewel was shocked to see the mess, the criss-crossing of slashes, welling and bleeding, the shiny red distinguishing from the rest of the dull red feathers. She and Roberto stared at Tia, both in awe and shock from the damage she had inflicted. Rojo struggled to his feet and whipped round, but the rage in his expression didn't subdue.

"Why did you have my daughter trapped in your filthy talons?" Eduardo demanded, and Tia, having not arrived early enough to see that, fled to Jewel to make sure she was okay.

"Did he hurt you? What's this?" All traces of aggression were gone, replaced by motherly concern, as Tia looked frantically at Jewel's shoulder.

"She was trespassing!" Rojo snarled, and Eduardo poisonous gaze momentarily turned on Jewel. She hastily explained.

"I wasn't! I was on the border, but not over it! In fact -" Jewel whirled to face Rojo. "You attacked me from behind. You were trespassing in _the first place!_ You knocked me into your land on purpose, to have an excuse to attack me!" It suddenly fit into place. Relief appeared and disappointment faded, as Tia and Eduardo realized Jewel wasn't to blame. Accusation made their eyes burn as they turned back towards Rojo.

 _"Lies."_ He said, in an overly honeyed voice.

"You've always been a terrible liar." Tia hissed, mockingly, and Rojo's eyes grew frustrated at his failure. "Let's forget what just happened here. We apologize for -"

"Oh no, Tiana. It's only just begun..." A strange smile appeared on Rojo's face that made Jewel feel cold, that left Eduardo, Tia and Mimi out of words. Tia began to pull Jewel away, while Mimi began ushering Roberto along.

"Come along, dear..." Mimi looked back. "Eduardo!" She called, sharply. Eduardo glanced back at his sister and then back at Rojo, before he - somewhat reluctantly - backed away, the desire to hurt Rojo overwhelming. Muttering under his breath, Eduardo turned away, and followed his family.

"You can't hide from me forever!" Rojo shouted, and then, in an inaudible hiss; "You'll pay for what you did to my head... and to my Perlina." Cursing under his breath, he looked over his shoulder, attempting to see the damages on his back, before some branches rustled not far away. He looked up, eyes blazing. "Who's there? Show yourself!" He briefly considered, but then looked away, blaming the breeze.

A pair of wide hazel eyes screwed shut, hiding behind the tree, where the sound originated. Azalea, having witnessed the whole scene, slid to sit on the branch, stunned. _He provoked Eduardo... why would he attack his daughter, for no reason?_ Peering from her hiding place, Azalea saw Rojo's inner circle creep out of the branches, to meet Rojo - as if they'd been watching him the whole time. _This isn't right..._ quietly, Azalea moved closer to listen.


	12. Feuds

"Why is it, whenever something happens, it is always you?"

"I don't know. Honestly, I keep asking myself that question." Jewel returned Eduardo's accusing glare. As usual whenever something happened, he was grilling her for information about what she witnessed. It was as if he was trying to shift the blame on her - he was looking for a lie, after the seriousness of what had happened. "I told you, dad! I was looking into their side, he came up behind me, and knocked me into their territory so he could pretend not to have plotted the whole thing! Why would I lie about it?"

"She wouldn't trespass after everything we went through!" Roberto defended Jewel. "Be realistic, Eduardo..."

"It's still quite audacious. You happened to be wingflaps from the border, and you're saying he came in on purpose, so he could then knock you into his land to frame you to look as though you were the guilty party?" Doubt glittered within Eduardo's gaze.

 _"Yes!"_ Jewel declared, indignantly, head spinning at so many words. Eduardo looked a little more secure, but not convinced.

"Regardless. Until I say so, you're not to return to the Brazil nut grove - or any of the trees around Rojo's border, in fact."

"What? You're joking!" Jewel couldn't believe it. The travel ban had only just been lifted, and now she was stopped from exploring again? Her favourite places - Brazil nut grove, Acai berry trees, strawberry guava and the star fruit grove, had just been barred. The places all her friends liked to hang out? Roberto's eyes widened, his expression full of shock - it was too unfair.

"Eduardo -" Roberto tried to protest, but the warning look he was given silenced him.

"I'm doing this to protect her. She could endanger herself and the entire -"

"Hey, I'm still here!" Jewel interrupted, in rage. Her feathers bristled aggressively, her inherited father's temper showing itself. "I don't need protection! Endanger the tribe? He won't hold me hostage and use me for ransom again! I can protect myself. You still think I'm a stupid kid, but I'm not anymore!"

"Eduardo, we have a problem -" Mila's voice sounded from outside. Her voice wasn't the only one - worried murmurs were among hers.

"Not now, Mila." Eduardo answered. "Jewel, I'm only acting in your best interests -"

"No, we really need to discuss this, it's really -" Mila pressed from outside.

 _"Not now!"_ Eduardo yelled.

"Hey!" Kida, not taking no for an answer, came marching. She was followed by a cautious Mila, and her snappy tone captured Eduardo's attention. Mila stood by her mate, a little timid, while Kida looked boldly at Eduardo. "There's a serious issue. It's the groves all along Rojo's border - suddenly a lot of food has gone missing." Jewel and Roberto slowly turned, looking at Kida and Mila. "Overnight, almost all the fruit has disappeared. It's as if someone just ran in there and picked it all! Tell him, Mila."

"She's right. We checked them all - the groves we share, suddenly a lot of food had vanished from our side - but never the other. It's so weird! Why would someone steal, when they have an entire, plentiful half?" Mila looked baffled - and so did the growing crowd behind them. Eduardo slowly turned to look at Jewel, this matching her story.

"I told you. I looked into their side, because our grove was empty, and theirs wasn't!" Jewel dared him to challenge her. "You saw it was empty for yourself. You need to start believing me more!" She spun round, and angrily fled the hollow. She heard a voice behind her. "Leave me alone, Roberto!" She snapped, assuming it was him.

"It's me, you daft thing." Jewel realised the voice was feminine, and she whirled round, knowing it was her mother. She looked at Tia a little cautiously, and Tia seemed to notice. Her eyes dropped - her feathers were still damp from where she'd washed the blood away. All anger and violence was zeroed now by shame and regret she felt. She dropped to a branch, looking at Jewel carefully. "What did he say?" Jewel threw herself onto the branch, in anger.

"I'm practically banished from every nice grove of fruit trees." Jewel said, sourly, and Tia rolled her eyes in annoyance. "'For my own safety'! Can you believe him?"

"Your father's too over cautious. Always has been, even when he was your age." Her eyes were so soft, and warm. Jewel couldn't believe the contrast. A few hours ago, they'd been filled with flame. Tia then casted her gaze downwards, sensing awkwardness. "I suppose you have a... few questions."

"About what?" Jewel asked, but couldn't disguise it.

"Me." Tia prompted, and Jewel hesitated before nodding. "Would you believe me, if I told you the tribe was once split into two?" Jewel blinked. "No?" Tia laughed a little. "Well, that was how things were, when we were your age. We were fighting constantly, arguing over territory. Your father and I brought our different groups together in a desperate time, when we could only survive together. We were part of different tribes - we met by accident, and I attacked him on sight. After I calmed down, for some reason, we kept seeing each other."

Jewel listened in fascination; why did it remind her of herself and Adelaide? For some reason, she wanted to see Adelaide again. _They met each other, and brought their tribes together?_ Two tribes divided, like them and the Red tribe were now... "Why have you never told me that? It sounds like a cool bedtime story."

"Well, some things were a bit too violent for a bedtime story." Tia stroked her head feathers, memories of regret in her eyes. "There was a lot of fighting. I'm ashamed to admit I was part of it, until your father saved me." There was a long pause, as Tia remembered clawing somebody in the back, just like how she'd attacked Rojo. "My mother, Eudora, raised me to take nonsense from nobody, but I think... she taught me too early, too intensely, how to fight. When I saw Rojo about to seriously harm your dad I... I don't know. I had to stop him by any means necessary. As I was saying. We stopped the fighting, and began to live in the same place. It was a tense integration at first, but eventually the tensions just... melted away."

"That's why you went ballistic?" Jewel asked, understanding now. "It all came rushing back... you just wanted to protect him." Tia smiled, a little sombre.

"Yes, Jewel. I'm sorry you had to witness it."

"What do you mean? I thought it was - scary, sure. But I also thought it was cool! Can you teach me to defend myself?" Tia immediately went to object, thinking of the savagery she had been taught, something she didn't dare think about. "Not too violent, just a few tricks, or something basic?" Jewel didn't know much, besides throwing herself at somebody. Her brief attack on Adelaide had been sloppy and poorly executed. If Eduardo saw she could protect herself, maybe he'd relax? There was no way she'd obey his rule anyway, but still.

"I don't know..."

"Please!" Jewel begged. For a moment, Tia looked reluctant, but then she thought about it. Jewel did need to protect herself - and Tia got to spend time with her. If Jewel got attacked and hurt, she'd never forgive herself.

"Well... I suppose a few moves won't do any harm..."

 _Meanwhile_

"Adelaide, Adelaide!"

"Azalea... what in the name of..." Adelaide's eyes slowly opened, for she was tired, but she was awake upon seeing the expression on Azalea's face. It was a combination of fear, panic, and burning anger - the strangest expression she'd ever seen. She looked around, wondering where Felipe had gone - she then remembered someone calling him away, before she'd drifted off. "What's the matter with you?" Azalea's feathers were very fluffy, her eyes darting about in anxiety.

"There's something you need to see! Come on!, quickly! Up to no good, I heard everything -"

"Azalea, you're making... no sense!" Adelaide blinked repeatedly at Azalea, still fighting away the blurry vision and headache caused by sleeping for longer than she'd intended, in full, blazing sunshine. "What's happened? Is it my mom?"

"No! Look, I'll tell you on the way." Azalea dragged her to her feet. Adelaide shook her head, following Azalea. "I was in the Brazil nut grove -"

"-sulking?" Adelaide suggested, irritable with sleep.

"Shut up!" Azalea snapped. "Look, I could see a blue macaw, oddly close to the border. She was just looking into our side, when... suddenly, Rojo came up behind her, and attacked." Adelaide dropped all lack of seriousness. Her head snapped into clarity - for some reason she knew exactly who it could be.

"Who?" she asked.

"I recognized her. Jewel, the one you ran into when we were little." Azalea said it dismissively, not thinking this to be important. Adelaide went to exclaim, but Azalea swept on. "Rojo started accusing her of trespassing and whatnot. But he was the trespasser, not her... Eduardo went ballistic, they had a fight, and then Tia clawed up Rojo pretty bad. But only because he was about to kill Eduardo!"

Adelaide's mind spun. "This is dreadful, Azalea! Rojo's lost the plot! We need to -"

"That's not all! His inner circle were watching him all along." Adelaide stared, blank. "Don't you get it? The attack was _planned!_ Rojo deliberately sought to provoke Eduardo, but made it look through no fault of his own. And it gets worse!" Adelaide realized they were on the forest floor, in a shady part of the territory. "He's been stealing. They all have!" Azalea thrust the leaves apart, stopping Adelaide in her tracks.

The scent of rotting organic matter grew overwhelming, as she saw a stagnant pond. Fruit floated on the surface, and beneath, Adelaide saw some heavier ones that had sunk. Flies buzzed above the surface, frenzied by the feast of rotting fruit, and a few moved slightly in the water as fish nibbled at the skin from underneath. Brazil nuts, strawberry guava, star fruit, acai berries, all from groves they shared with the Spix's macaws.

"Why... why would he dump the food here? Why is he doing this?" Adelaide stared, appalled.

"To be spiteful!" Azalea closed the screen, covering the horrible waste. "He thought nobody from their side would find it here. If I saw a load of food on the ground, I'd suspect something! It's so petty! It's such a waste, he dumped it in here so it would rot faster and be inedible-" Adelaide's heart raced, drowning out Azalea. Suddenly she was gripped by terrible fear.

"We need to tell Felipe."

"We?"

"Yes, we!" Adelaide went to fly, but Azalea didn't move. "Azalea!"

"Heck no. I'm not doing it."

"What's the matter with you, Azalea?"

"I don't want to be involved! Like he'll be able to do anything, anyway!"

"Of course he'll be able to, he's Rojo's son! And you just told me about this! But now you're saying you won't help me tell Felipe?" Adelaide narrowed her eyes. "Why do you have such a problem with him, Azalea? You're always avoiding him, dropping subtle insults. Why do you seem to hate him so much?"

"Why do you hang out with him so much, anyway? I have no friends, nobody wants to talk to me, just like my -" Azalea cut herself off, hazel eyes filled with humiliation and fear, before spinning round, and spontaneously dashing away.

"That's because you push them away, Azalea! They want to talk to you, but they can't, if you don't let them!" Adelaide shouted, but Azalea was gone. "What is going on inside that head of hers? I can't figure her out..." Adelaide pushed a wing through her head feathers, telling herself to deal with Azalea later. Who did she tell first? Jewel, Felipe? "Felipe..." Maybe he could talk some sense into Rojo.

 ** _The first half of my A levels are almost here, my doc manager is dodgy. Basically, I don't have time to write as much, even if my doc manager lets me save work. My tests are at the end of the month, I'm very stressed, and I really need to revise - my updates will be slower until July, and I post a new chapter once a week at most anyway. Please, be patient for updates._**


	13. Cruel irony

"-but as I tried to negotiate, Eduardo and Tiana attacked me, completely unprovoked."

Adelaide froze immediately, hearing Rojo's booming voice as the Kapoks rushed into view. _Holy smoke, what has he done now?_ She put on a burst of speed, hearing the uneasy mutters of her tribe ahead; flying over the first Kapoks, she found them full of red, facing Rojo from where he perched. He was flanked by his inner circle, his closest - and generally Spix's-hating friends. Now Adelaide knew they were so corrupt, thanks to Azalea. Spotting Felipe beside Juliana and her mother, Adelaide raced to his side. She worriedly wondered where Azalea was, because she couldn't see her.

"Felipe! What's going on?" She looked anxiously towards the front, where Rojo was now showcasing the clawmarks inflicted - like a crossword, the clawmarks slashed across each other in frenzy, suggesting a mindless, panicked attack - how a desperate mate would protect her love. She winced at the sore sight, although she thought he deserved it. He hadn't bothered cleaning off the dried blood, clearly to make the wound look even worse.

"He found some Spix's macaws stealing from us. He challenged them, but Tia and Eduardo attacked him for practically no reason... his back is a state." To Adelaide's horror, he didn't show any signs of disbelief or doubt. Felipe's eyes were mortified at the thought of Eduardo and Tia launching such a needless assault. He had to know it wasn't the truth.

"Listen to me. He's -" Adelaide paused when Rojo spoke.

"Eduardo swore he'd take all the groves we share with him, because their own have been depleted - he claimed disease, I believe greed." _That's a lie! That sounds unbelievably out of character!_ A few muttered around her, saying the same thing she was thinking.

"We cannot allow him to steal our birthright!" Declared one of Rojo's companions, a female named Caesura. "All those trees were ours to begin with, until they made a deal to share!"

"Caesura is right. We will make the first move, and take what's ours! We'll catch them completely off guard!" Rojo shouted, expecting the tribe to cheer, to voice their approval. But the majority of them were eerily silent. They weren't exactly keen on the idea of such provocation, such risk.

"You're... you're going to steal their side?" One of Adelaide's friends, Lena, asked. Her voice was full of shock and disapproval. "You can't..."

"You said it was depleted! What's the point, then?" Ricardo shouted beside her, and several birds murmured in agreement.

"For our future!" Rojo retorted, feathers bristling defensively - he looked frustrated, realizing his flaw. "They'll grow back. We'll move in within the next few days. My decision has been made!" He whirled round, and disappeared into the tree with his inner circle following, leaving the tribe to murmur in unease. Adelaide replayed what she'd heard, blood boiling _. It's a load of lies! That sneaky, lying -_

"I'm not buying it." Juanita said, on Juliana's other side - she had gotten out of recovery last night, surprising Adelaide when she went to the hollow for bed, thinking she'd be spending another night alone. Her blue eyes were bright again, showing no sign she'd ever been ill, but now they were worried. "Perlina told me everything about Tia. She wouldn't just attack Rojo for no reason! Eduardo's not the one to go out and claim land. And why would he tell Rojo of his plans? That's completely losing the element of surprise."

"Exactly! I'm having no part of it." Juliana declared. "Felipe, do you honestly - Felipe? Oh, he's off." Adelaide was relieved that the tribe wasn't so gullible to go ahead and believe Rojo. But Felipe? She saw him flying away, through the trees, and hurried after him, catching up just outside the Kapoks.

"Felipe, this is a mess." Adelaide landed on the branch beside him. Vines hung densely, green and thick, mottled with shadows - she hadn't been here before, but she couldn't say she liked it. The vines looked ready to entangle and coil around her, looking almost alive as the wind made them swing slightly.

"You're telling me!" Felipe turned to face Adelaide. "Rojo called me away from our date - I um, mean, when we were talking." Adelaide paused briefly, distracted. _He saw our meeting as a date?_ She felt her heart flutter. "He told me what happened. Can you believe Eduardo and Tia would do something so barbaric and unexpected -"

"It's barbaric and unexpected because it didn't happen." Adelaide said, abruptly, and Felipe fell silent. He blinked a few times before he answered.

"What did you just say?"

"Look, there was an attack, I won't deny that. Tia did attack him, but only because he was about to tear Eduardo's throat out!" Adelaide hurriedly informed him of what Azalea had told her five minutes ago; about how Rojo had tried to frame Jewel as a trespasser, observed by his shifty inner circle, how he had almost killed Eduardo but failed thanks to Tia.

"But... but..." obviously it would be hard to believe. Felipe had heard Rojo's side of the story first, only to be told it was a lie. "He seemed so honest..."

"He's manipulating you!" Adelaide insisted, desperately.

"But he was -" Felipe paused, and then turned defensive. "If his friends were watching, why didn't they jump out to help him, when Tia clawed his back to pieces?"

"I... I guess he wanted it to happen?" Adelaide knew how stupid that sounded.

"Ha!" Felipe scoffed. "Why? You do realize how ridiculous that sounds?"

"He needed it to look believable, didn't he? I bet it was his plan, to get hurt, to make them look bad, and him look the victim!" Adelaide held both his wings, trying to get him to believe her, brown eyes filled with pleading. Felipe stared back, olive green eyes glazed with pain and disappointment.

"It's the first time he's spoken to me by choice since my mom died. The fact that he actually came to me... telling me he wanted my help, that mom wouldn't want us to just let them walk all over us -" _That doesn't sound like Perlina. "_ -he said I had inherited her smart thinking, that she loved me and wanted me to... I actually felt as though, for the first time since she died, as though he seemed to care for me." Rojo was so clever. _He's twisted Felipe around his talon!_

"I get it, he's the only family you have, and I promise I don't want to take that away from you. But you must believe me when I say he's using you! He just wants you on his side. Perlina said she wanted you to stop his plots, you're the only one -"

"You were there?" Felipe immediately dropped her wings, feathers on end. "You were eavesdropping on her deathbed?" Adelaide froze, remembering - she'd listened in, not to be nosy, but just to make sure Felipe was alright, as Perlina had died. How foolish she'd been, to say something like that.

"I know that sounds bad -"

"That was a private moment, Adelaide!" Felipe trembled with emotion, the pain of losing Perlina rushing back. He got carried away, not thinking about his words. "You were eavesdropping like some spy? I bet you told everyone afterwards, too, what she said!"

"I only listened because I care about you! I cared about both of you! And I wouldn't tell everyone! What kind of bird do you think I am, Felipe?" Adelaide began to bristle in anger. "I'm just trying to protect you from Rojo! He'll destroy the Spix's macaws, and us too! Don't you see how manipulative he's being?"

Their voices rose as they began to have a heated argument, heard by several forest creatures. A few feet away from them, one rose its scaly head, swinging it their way. It could smell the feathers, sense the heat. It's head drifted from side to side; in its odd vision, it could see two warm-blooded patches against the coolness of the surroundings. A forked tongue flickered out.

 _"-you said Azalea told you! Maybe she misheard, or made it up -"_

 _"Why would she make it up? Is that what you think of her? No wonder she hates you-"_

 _"Hates me?"_

 _"Yes, she hates you! Isn't it obvious?"_

As they tried scoring petty points, they were oblivious to the moving vine descending from the canopy. It's tongue continued to flicker, the sun unable to cast light on its green scales due to the thickness of the canopy. Shrouded by shadow, it slithered closer, beady eyes glistening with blood lust. It grew excited by the warmth as Felipe and Adelaide grew angrier, as their voices rose.

"Why don't you prove it?"

"Sure, I can prove it! There's a pond of rotting fruit, the fruit your dad stole from them! Why don't you listen in on one of his meetings once in a while? You'll see I'm right! He did it so the Spix's macaws would apparently have a motive for stealing groves, which they wouldn't do anyway -"

"What makes you so sure?" Felipe challenged, and Adelaide thought of Jewel. She knew because of her, but didn't say so.

"You need to trust me! I -" suddenly Felipe froze. The colour drained from his white face markings, which had flushed pink from their angry exchange. He began to shake. "Felipe? What's wrong?" Adelaide didn't like the terrified expression on his face.

"Don't move. Don't move, don't move..." he whispered it over and over, struck with terror - but not for himself. For Adelaide. She couldn't stop herself - automatically, Adelaide turned. There was a series of hisses, and then something small, thin and green darted forwards, white fangs glistening - small, but lithe and poisonous. Hissing with excitement, it lunged.

With a cry of terror, Adelaide tried to protect herself, but a pair of wings enveloped her and spun her around, so Felipe was between her and the snake. She tried to fight him out of harm's way, but it was too late. Felipe released a shriek and became rigid. Then his grasp on Adelaide disappeared as he fell down.

"Felipe!" Adelaide screamed, falling to his side like a stone. Four trails of blood were trickling down his wing. It was a different kind of hurt. Like a fire, slowly spreading through his wing. Adelaide seized a leaf stalk, hastily tying it around his wing joint in an attempt to stop the venom creeping up to his heart. "Somebody, help! Help!" she shrieked, over and over. They were so close to the kapoks, Adelaide could already hear the surprised and frightened voices of those who heard her voice, but would they reach her and Felipe in time?

Felipe's beak was fastened over the bite - Adelaide momentarily wondered what on earth he was doing, before Felipe spat out some of his own blood - based by the expression on his face, the taste of poison was mixed in with it. But he still shook, for some venom was still in his wing. He stared wildly into Adelaide's eyes, before crying out in fear.

"Adelaide! _Watch out!"_ Felipe spluttered, a few drops of his blood spraying from his cry. Adelaide whipped round to see the snake coiling up, preparing to strike again. Adelaide dived over Felipe, desperately trying to shield him as he had shielded her, not hearing the shrieks - group of macaws had arrived, hearing their screams. But only one threw itself forwards, adrenaline fuelled by love.

The snake darted forwards once again, fangs outstretched - but as its teeth seeped into a warm-blooded neck, it was neither Adelaide or Felipe. A familiar scream was abruptly cut off. Then a hail of shrieking Green-Winged and Scarlet macaws rained down onto the snake, yanking it away. Frenzied with rage, they threw it down, over the branch. The snake tumbled, plunging into the undergrowth, spitting and hissing, twisting madly as it descended - before hitting the ground with a thud and making no more noise. Adelaide, breathing hard, lifted her head from Felipe's chest.

"No, _no!"_ Juliana's piercing cry of anguish flayed the air. "You only just got better, after all this time! Oh my stars, this isn't how it's supposed to be!" It felt like ice had replaced Adelaide's blood, as her eyes fixated upon the horror. Cradled in Juliana's wings, Juanita quivered on the branch, blood trickling, thickly, down her throat, onto her chest. Adelaide opened her beak, but thunder drowned her scream.

Juanita's glassy eyes stilled upon Adelaide, the venom meaningless, for her throat had been pierced. Her life slipped through Juliana's wings like the rain falling from the sky.


	14. Your love for me

"I don't know what sucks more! Needing a guardian to be in this grove, or being stuck in here with this weather."

"I'm not your guardian... Come on, at least he's not banned you _entirely_ like he said he would. As long as someone's with you. Who wants to be here alone anyway? It's boring otherwise." Roberto threw a strawberry guava stalk outside; being a very sociable bird, he rarely spent time out of the ravine by himself so he didn't know why some liked to be alone a lot. Jewel and Roberto had been confined to this tree for a few hours, keeping out of the rain.

"Don't you still think it's unnecessary?" Jewel was still angry. "Mom's been teaching me a couple of things from her 'warrior days', as Mimi calls them. I can protect myself against a raving mad red macaw now, but dad's still being stubborn." They'd had a few self-defence classes, and Roberto had joined in some of them. Eduardo taught them the boring stuff, like trap escaping and camouflage. Jewel loved fake-fighting Tia and Roberto - she was getting quite good at it. But It still hadn't changed Eduardo's mind.

"He's just being protective. I wouldn't worry about it, let's just let this blow over."

"What if it doesn't?" Jewel said, worriedly. She remembered Adelaide's warning with trepidation.

"It will, eventually! Conflict can't last forever..." Roberto reached outside to get another strawberry guava - Jewel had eaten about eleven, he was on his thirteenth one. Eating the plentiful fruit was the only thing to do in this leaky hollow, with the rain.

Whatever had happened to the fruit that made it do a disappearing act apparently hadn't been efficient because there were simply so many of the little fruits. Some coconut trees up above them, however, had been plucked bare. Jewel was unsure, but had a bad feeling Rojo was something to do with it. Who else would, even if her father insisted Rojo wasn't that much of an idiot.

"I don't know anymore. It's all mad."

"Cheer up, Ju-Ju. What worse can he do?" Roberto began eating his strawberry guava. With a sigh, Jewel got up and leaned outside to grab one for herself, but then something caught her attention.

"Roberto."

"You're such a pessimist... the rain's getting lighter now, we -"

"Shut up and be quiet!" Jewel was bristling, and Roberto realized something was wrong. Slowly, he got up and looked around her, so he could see what was going on.

"-we'll make this quick. While their tribe is hiding from the rain, we'll take it. Rojo says so." a female lead them. A mixed group of eight Scarlet and Green-Winged macaws, smack bang in the middle of the Spix's side.

"Caesura, we can barely fly in this weather -" a younger member of the group looked unsure and uncomfortable with the rain soaking him, also as though he didn't want to be there. Jewel and Roberto recognised a few of the adults - they'd been hanging around Rojo a lot when they'd been held captive as chicks, and one looked like the guard that had been placed outside their prison tree.

"Well, the faster you do it, the faster you'll be out of it, won't you?" snapped Caesura, impatiently. "Go on! I want to get back at least a little dry." Jewel and Roberto watched as a Green-Winged macaw went over to one of the marker trees - they signalled the beginning of the shared grove, the trunk painted with a streak of blue flower paint to signify the start of the Spix's macaws side.

"I don't believe this... he's not going to..." Roberto stared in fear, while Jewel trembled with anger. The Green-Winged macaw tore off the strip of bark painted blue, and then slapped the branch with a red piece of fruit. A trail of red took the place of the blue, the colour of blood.

"They just stole our grove." Jewel said, slowly. Her blood began to boil immediately, and her heart began to pound. "I'm going to do something. I -"

"No you're not!" Roberto had an iron grip on her wing. "Jewel, if you confront them, guess what'll happen? We'll get captured again - there's two of us, and eight of them. I don't fancy being held for ransom and coming under fire from Eduardo when or _if_ we're released -"

"What was that? I heard voices!" Roberto's beak snapped shut and Jewel lost all courage - the red macaws were mere metres away. Impulsively, Roberto hauled Jewel outside, forcing them to fly for it. Shrieks sounded behind them as the Red macaws realized they'd been caught in the act.

"Get them!" shrieked Caesura, but most of them were older and more slow. Jewel and Roberto fled into their territory, blue feathers flying out behind them.

 _Meanwhile_

 _"It's a white, white moon - hanging over a blue, blue sea... but it wouldn't be beautiful, without your love for me..."_ Adelaide heard her mother's voice whirling round her head as she whispered the song Juanita loved singing to herself, had sung Adelaide to sleep with as a chick. _Had loved... had sung. "A swathe of silver stars - shining above every tree... they brighten up the night, and that's how it ought to be..."_

The funeral had been short, but to Adelaide, it had been a torturous eternity. The cruel irony, that Juanita had slowly healed for several weeks, only to die in one swoop back in the first day of her normal life. Adelaide lay in her nest, curled up uncomfortably tight, in the space where Juanita usually slept. Her mother had had a unique scent - fresh, sweet, like dew-dropped flowers, but she couldn't smell it anymore. Her brown eyes stared blankly at the wall, unseeing, unfeeling. One might assume she was dead, had she not been whispering Juanita's song.

How sweet of Azalea, to gently sing that to her as everyone else had trudged away through the rain. It had been a surprising show of tenderness and support from her cousin and best friend who normally shut everyone out. But it had been sung through tears, and Azalea had disappeared as soon as she'd finished, unable to stop crying. Adelaide hadn't seen her since.

Juanita had practically raised Azalea, until Juliana had snapped out of her depression following her mate's cowardly departure. Azalea had barely anyone as it was, and now she only had Adelaide and Juliana, who had sunk back into an emotionless state following the loss of Juanita. Would she come out of it this time? Juliana had always been fragile.

"Adelaide?" said a cautious voice. "Sorry to disturb, but Felipe's asking for you."

"Thanks, Miguel." But Adelaide made no sign to suggest she would move. She thought she heard him take a step forwards, thought he'd say something, but then she heard him sigh before sensing that Miguel had left. _Asking for you._ She hadn't seen him since Juanita had died. She'd heard that the venom had rendered him feverish and in pain, but that he was beginning to recover now that it was working its way out of his system.

She cared, of course, but she didn't have the will to see him. She didn't know whether she blamed Felipe, herself, both of them, or what. She was both angry and not with him. _I can't blame him. It wasn't all Felipe. I made the argument worse too._

Slowly, stiffly, she got up for the first time in hours, and looked outside. It was as though the sky wept for Juanita. The river was swollen, the streams had burst in places. The sky was lighter now, less heavy with the burden of rain, but Adelaide's heart still felt heavy, as she made her way through the downpour to Felipe's hollow. Her grief was gently subsidized, as she thought of Felipe saving her life, although Juanita was still on the brain.

She sat down next to him, although he was asleep. Felipe's wing looked less swollen, and there was no blood or shaking as she remembered. It was only four, tiny puncture marks from where the snake had bitten - literally through - the fleshy part of his wing. They looked so insignificant now, shrivelled and receeded to reveal scar-white skin. The infection had gone down - the snake didn't have the most toxic of venom. Tying the leaf around his wing joint, as well as him drawing out some of the poison, may have well saved his life. How cruel, for Juanita to get her airway punctured. Maybe if she'd been a few centimetres to the right, she'd still be here...

Where was Rojo? In a fatal flaw, his first action had not been to race to see if Felipe was okay. He'd had one of his shifty meetings first, before eventually giving Felipe a flying visit. Wouldn't a genuinely concerned father at least visit more, if he wasn't going to be at Felipe's side constantly? He was definitely planning something with his inner circle, but nobody had left the kapoks in days with the torrential rain and powerful winds. Adelaide had to warn Jewel, when her grief was under control. Right now, she felt so breakable...

"I'm sorry." Adelaide slowly looked down at him - he'd been awake after all. Felipe had dark patches under his eyes - he'd lost a few feathers, probably from his stress and grief, like how Juliana, Azalea and especially Adelaide had. "This is my fault. Juanita..." Adelaide knew convention said she should comfort him, insist it wasn't, but she couldn't find truthful words. She didn't know what she believed.

"I shouldn't have tried to score points." She managed, eventually. She didn't make eye contact, swallowing hard. "And I'm sorry I eavesdropped on you and Perlina."

"I know why you did it, and I'm sorry for not thinking about that." Felipe tried to sit up, but sank back down when his wing protested. "Are you okay?" Like Adelaide, his eyes were tight from crying so much. Juanita had been Perlina's closest friend, like an aunt to him. Adelaide closed her eyes as a tear dripped onto the floor.

"No." she confessed, her lower beak quivering as she tried to force down the sobs. "She only just recovered. And - and now - she's dead. I'm on my own." Felipe finally struggled to his feet, his uninjured wing on hers. His eyes were filled with despair and guilt, and such pain from seeing Adelaide this distraught. She trembled like a leaf, the grief fighting its way to the surface. She tried to force it down.

"That's not true. You have Juliana, our friends, Azalea - even if she does hate me." Adelaide gave a half-hearted scoff of laughter. Felipe placed a comforting wing around her, but she flinched - the tension was still there. His head sank. "I believe you now. I'm sorry I didn't believe you the other day." Felipe's brief reconnection with Rojo had dissipated when he'd replayed his conversation with both Adelaide and Rojo, and when he'd found out his father had had a dodgy meeting before seeing him, when he could have been dying.

"It's fine."

"I don't even have words. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so..."

"Stop saying sorry. We were just in the wrong place, wrong time. A snake could've been anywhere." A little thunder rumbled outside, as Adelaide glanced towards it, reminded of the moment she'd seen Juanita's life ebb away in her aunt's wings. "I just... I wish I didn't feel so lost. I loved her so much - and - and..." she stopped herself.

"You can tell me. I'm -"

Her voice turned to sobs as she felt a wall crumble. All at once, the grief exploded to light. "I miss her, Felipe! She was all I had! This is my fault!" The guilt was crushing her. It consumed her, as she buried her face into her wings and wept.

"It's not!" Felipe said, fiercely.

 _"I didn't even get to say goodbye!"_ Adelaide wailed like a chick. He pulled her gently into an embrace, holding her as though she were made of glass. She resisted at first, but then she found she couldn't support herself. Adelaide collapsed against him, and Felipe comforted her, ignoring the dull pain in his injured wing. Adelaide wept for the earth, but as she did, she felt his heart under her ear, and his warmth. She imagined Juanita as she had when alive, happy and warm, the best parent she could ask for. Juanita had had a good, long life... wasn't that something to feel good about?

She remained there for several minutes, crying into his chest, letting her grief tumble out. All the while, Felipe stroked her spiky head feathers, blinking at the ceiling as he tried to force away his own tears. Finally, Adelaide felt the flood waters receed. Crying a little less, she managed to stand without his support.

"Thank you." She still felt heavy, but it wasn't as crushing this time. She looked at Felipe, thoughts of her mother briefly drifting from her mind, as Adelaide's wing tips swept across the side of Felipe's face. Her wing held onto his, as she kissed him, just for a moment, before she left to finish grieving. "Thank you for saving my life." Despite her anger towards him and her pain, Adelaide felt a little lighter.


	15. On an edge

_**This chapter was painful to write, so it's not my best. And I'm so tired.**_

Ten days after Juanita had died, seven after Adelaide had placed a kiss upon Felipe, tensions were sky-high. Not between him and Adelaide - there was a newfound understanding between the pair of them. A warm feeling that was the beginning of something. Azalea was less shut off but had yet to smile. Juliana was beginning to make an appearance each morning, making a little chatter with her friends as she did.

The tribe was revolting over Rojo's latest decision. Maybe that was an exaggeration - they were angry, but not daring to go out there and put the border right themselves or try to even overthrow Rojo. Overthrowing had happened before with the tyrannical leader before Rojo - the irony being that the one to bring a less tyrannical rule was Rojo himself, before he'd hit his head on a rock. They were trying to blame his actions on his grief, but they were being less understanding and more were accusing Rojo of being greedy and selfish.

Felipe tried to understand - maybe Rojo really was still angered by Perlina's death. Maybe that accident years ago during his battle with Eduardo had warped his brain into thinking stealing such a big strip of land was okay. Maybe he wanted revenge; Felipe had heard him blame the Spix's macaws for Perlina falling sick, and he how hated his torturous migraines. But none of that justified his decision to go out and steal so much territory, where the Spix's macaws sourced much of their food. He'd stolen every single grove they shared with the blues.

"Something's not right." Adelaide looked anxiously across the border. The former border, anyway. She hadn't dared go across the line despite it being theirs, and she wasn't the only one. "I know the rain's only just stopped, but surely, they should have done something by now. At least made an appearance." Felipe looked cautiously at her.

She had slowly felt her grief fade away until she had stopped spending every night crying herself to sleep. Comforting Juliana, and talking to Felipe, had certainly helped her cope and recover even if it did still hurt. Her friends were still careful around her, never mentioning snakes or mothers. Her thoughts had been more occupied on Felipe, Azalea and, strangely, Jewel.

"I don't know... the weather's been pretty nightmarish until today. The forest's almost entirely flooded." Lena glanced downwards, where water swirled around the roots of the acai berry trees. The Amazon river had burst its banks, but the blue skies and unusually hot sunshine would ensure it the water would recede soon enough.

"Maybe they haven't noticed the marked trees?" Ricardo, Lena's now-boyfriend, suggested on her other side.

"It's the first thing border patrols check. They must have." Felipe said, from where he perched next to Adelaide. Adelaide was momentarily distracted, as she looked at Azalea on her other side. Azalea stared blankly into the tree canopy, a black flower dangling from her wing.

"You okay, Azalea?" Adelaide asked.

"I'm cool." Azalea replied, distantly. She didn't sleep in Juliana's hollow while her mother wallowed in grief - after making her first appearance since the funeral, Azalea had begun to share Adelaide's hollow, sleeping opposite her or, if she had a nightmare about snakes, snuggled against her cousin in Juanita's old nest. They'd begun to knit themselves back together, even if Azalea was still a little distant. Adelaide herself was still not on form as well - today was the first day since Juanita that she'd gone out with her friends.

"Are you?" Adelaide asked, and Azalea's hazel eyes briefly flickered her way before she began picking some acai berries hanging above her.

"Felipe, you have to talk to Rojo. Eduardo'll be after his blood when he knows, if he hasn't already." Lena urged.

"I can't... he won't listen to me."

"He has to... you're his son!" Adelaide turned away from Azalea. "If anyone can change his mind, its you." But Felipe looked uncomfortably at his feet. He was hating Rojo more and more - he didn't like talking to him. He was afraid of his own father.

"I'll think about it." Felipe muttered, but Adelaide knew he wouldn't. She went to protest, but then thought better of it.

"I'm getting some water. I'll be back in a minute." Adelaide flew away to think for a moment, but not before she kissed Felipe on the cheek. Azalea looked away, a little uncomfortable, now that she was there on her own with Ricardo, Lena and Felipe. Felipe glanced her way. He wondered why she seemed to hate him.

"How are you, Azalea?"

"I'm alright." Azalea said, bluntly. "You?"

"I'm fine." Awkwardness. Felipe's skin crawled with discomfort at the silence, but then they were saved - a silence descended upon Ricardo and Lena too, their eyes fixed ahead. Felipe got up very quickly, his feathers on end. The distance in Azalea's eyes immediately cleared as she sat bolt upright, while Lena and Ricardo swapped fearful looks.

Eduardo, Tia and Mimi had descended from the canopy, and now all three faced the small group of teenagers, a safe distance between them. Tia looked as though she didn't want to be there. Mimi looked both angry and fearful. Eduardo was staring daggers across the gap.

"Well." said Eduardo, loudly. "It seems as though your Fawnberryther has decided to take something that doesn't belong to him."

"Eduardo." Felipe said, trying to hide how anxious he was. Tia was looking at him in particular with remorse, the one piece of Perlina that remained. It wasn't only that. She was hoping that Perlina's way of thinking had been passed on. Hopefully, her dead friend's son wasn't anything like Rojo. "How did you -"

"Before you throw accusations of trespassing, we went _over_ the trees. Although we're not trespassing right now... this is rightfully our land." Mimi adopted a similar glare to Eduardo for support.

"We're not accusing you..." Lena got up slowly. "We don't represent Rojo -"

"He does." Eduardo was looking, very obviously, at Felipe.

"We're not here to cause an argument." Tia said, quickly. "We're here to simply ask... why this has happened." That wasn't. Felipe could tell that Tia had been the one to water it down - Eduardo's face gave away his original intentions, to march over here and confront Rojo, full of threats and warnings. Tia was trying not to start a war.

"We're not the right ones to ask." Felipe said, choosing his words carefully. "I'll pass on a message for you, to him - if you want." Mimi shrugged when Eduardo glanced her way, while Tia gave Eduardo a meaningful look, silently telling him to think before speaking.

"Alright." Eduardo said, tightly. "I want Rojo to talk. Tell him I want to meet him at the walking palms tomorrow noon, to... discuss this and negotiate. But if he doesn't... I will take back my grove. By any means necessary. Understood?" In the branches some distance from her friends, Adelaide looked on, skin prickling; she had returned to find this.

"Uh... very." Felipe's feathers were starting to rise with his fear, and he nervously flattened them. "We'll do it now." He looked at Ricardo and Lena, but they were already gone, glad to get away. Azalea stared at the three blue macaws, frozen, full of fear. "Come on, Azalea." when she didn't seem to hear, he tugged at her shoulder, and she immediately jumped. Azalea snapped out of her trance and raced into the trees, and Felipe, with one last glance at the blue macaws, soon followed suit.

"Come on. Jewel and Roberto are waiting for us." Adelaide paused at Tia's statement. _Jewel? Could this be my chance to..._ "You were so rude to them! This is on Rojo, not them!" Tia sounded furious. Adelaide was glad to hear that the Spix's macaws were as her mother said - they weren't savages, as Rojo wanted the tribe to think.

"Rude? At least I didn't steal territory I didn't need!" Eduardo retorted, and Tia bristled back. "We need to look strong, Tia. We can't let them think we're unwilling to defend ourselves!"

"That's enough -" Mimi tried to interject, but Tia rushed in.

"Sometimes you think fighting is always the answer. You're no better than Rojo." Tia angrily flew through the trees, and Eduardo went to make a comeback.

"Don't you dare!" Mimi snapped, and Eduardo, despite glaring at his sister, kept silent as he followed Tia away. Mimi sighed. "Thank goodness I never married. I don't have to deal with this nonsense." The three blue macaws went through their previous land, unaware that Adelaide was following them.

Jewel and Roberto waited a little anxiously. "Why didn't they just wait for a patrol to pass instead of just marching in there? What if Rojo _captures_ them?" Roberto asked, fearfully.

"He's not that stupid..." yet Jewel sounded unconvinced. "I'm sure mom, dad and Mimi would figure something out..." Roberto too didn't look at all persuaded. Eduardo had spent days trying to figure out a course of action, and the bad weather had kept them unable to travel far, which was why they hadn't acted immediately.

Jewel was afraid of what was going to happen, especially since the patrol who had stolen the strawberry guava grove had tried to capture her and Roberto. They'd left that detail out when telling Eduardo that the grove had been taken, because there was no doubt he'd never let them go anywhere again, because bad things always seemed to involve the pair of them.

Luckily, the worries of the three being captured were soon dissolved when Eduardo, Tia and Mimi came into view. But Jewel's smile of relief faded when she saw the stormy look on all of their faces. None of them said a word as they lighted down before them. The air trembled with tension, as Tia and Eduardo looked angrily at each other, as Mimi looked nervously between the two of them. "So... how did it go?" Roberto asked, although the answer was obvious.

"I think... I need to think." Eduardo said, slowly. "I just don't know." He flew off through the trees, and Jewel watched him leave, wings hanging limply at her sides. She noticed the disappointment in her mother's eyes, as she went off in another direction.

"Tia!" Mimi protested, going after her. "Roberto, you talk to him, will you?" Off she went.

"What am I supposed to do?" Jewel asked, but Mimi was already gone.

"Well, I'd better go after him... come with?" Roberto turned her way.

"Uh... no thanks." Jewel didn't relish the idea of talking to an angry Eduardo. She began to gaze into the distance, before realizing Roberto was still there. "What?"

"I don't want to go on my own..."

"Oh please, go." Jewel rolled her eyes and laughed to lift his spirits, but failed to lift her own. Muttering in dread, Roberto flew after Eduardo, leaving Jewel on her own. She sighed and leaned against a tree trunk, worrying about what her parents were planning to do. She also worried about the tension she'd witnessed; they bickered, but it was never that hostile, right? Sophia's parents had split - or had been for several minutes, for it had been during their terrible split that Sophia's father had died in a freak accident. _Don't be stupid - mom and dad are crazy for each other._

"Jewel?" Jewel glanced up, thinking she'd heard her name. She looked about, shrugging to herself when she didn't see anyone. "Over here!" It said, more urgently, and Jewel's head snapped up when she realized it wasn't her imagination. Adelaide was sheer metres away, a hop from the border.

"What are you doing here?" Jewel asked, without a trace of hostility.

"I need to talk to you." Adelaide dropped onto a lower branch, so they were eye level. Jewel glanced about nervously, listening for company. She'd seen Kida and Mila earlier; Mila was mild-mannered and would allow Adelaide to explain, while her other half would gladly drive away or attack a red macaw on sight. "I'm sorry." She sounded so genuine.

"For what? Oh." Jewel suddenly remembered Adelaide was in their former share of the grove. How had she failed to notice that? "What happened, Adelaide? A few crazies almost caught me and my friend the other day! One minute we had four groves to share, the next, nothing!"

"I honestly don't know. There was no warning... well, that's not true, actually..." Rojo had given them that ridiculous speech, she remembered.

"You didn't warn us?"

"I had something to deal with, okay?" Adelaide snapped, rather abruptly. Jewel flinched, but something told her not to ask or worse, make an angry comeback. Adelaide sounded tight, as though something was about to break - her brown eyes were dark and sad, with both anger and grief. She looked away, not making eye contact. "And it's not like it would have easy to get here with the weather. Who's to say your dad would believe me, anyway?" Jewel's suspicion and narrowed eyes melted away.

"You're right, he probably wouldn't." Jewel's concern over Adelaide's spontaneous outburst was forgotten; she made a point there. Eduardo trusted an alligator more than he trusted a Red macaw. He'd probably use Adelaide as a hostage, as revenge for Jewel and Roberto's imprisonment.

"We have to do something, Jewel. If we can't stop the fighting - which we can't... we'll have to get around this a better way."

"What do you suggest?" Jewel asked, in exasperation. "My dad swears he'll fight Rojo, and he won't be giving the land back in a million years! What could possibly work? Rojo won't negotiate!"

"Well, I did have one idea..."


	16. A suggestion

"Rojo!" Felipe came flying into the Kapoks, trailing Lena, Ricardo and Azalea. Lena and Ricardo disappeared into the trees, while Azalea, uncertain and looking a little lost, hovered as Felipe went on ahead. Her hazel eyes nervously flickered around, self conscious.

"Why does he call him that?" Muttered a Green-Winged macaw, nearby. "He's his father..."

"Really? Are you _sure?"_ The area over his companion's eyes rose, and the Green-Winged slowly nodded in understanding.

"I suppose that's true. I've never seen Rojo display any kind of affection to him. Even before Perlina died he was the most distant parent I've ever seen."

"Other than Azalea's dad." Sniggered a group of teenagers, below and out of earshot. They were the group Felipe and his friends didn't like socializing with. They pretended to be tough as rocks and were rude to pretty much anybody, and they were often the source of nasty rumours. Azalea had heard their comment from where she hovered; her eyes flooded with hurt and rage, but she disappeared from view before they spotted her. Felipe hadn't seen this.

He hurried to the hollow, calling Rojo, but then he found his path blocked by Caesura. "You can't go in there." She said, bluntly. Felipe gave her a look of annoyance; her face annoyed him.

"It's important, Caesura. He has to hear this -"

"Not now." Said a male Felipe had never bothered to learn the name of. Caesura and the male blocked the entrance like a pair of bodyguards, bristling ever so slightly - he was unpopular among Rojo's friends, and they made it blatantly obvious. Felipe narrowed his eyes with suspicion.

"Why?" Felipe asked, loudly.

"Ssh!" Hissed Caesura, sharply. It was then Felipe realized that the hollow was sealed by a slab of stone, the cracks filled with leaves - he then understood. _One of Rojo's migraines._ This happened once every month or so, or more if he was angry or stressed. Felipe had wondered why the Kapoks were unusually quiet, the kids sent outside to play their loud games - Rojo needed darkness and silence until it had passed. It had to be pitch black in that hollow.

He was disturbed when he heard moans of agony, even through the stone. Was Rojo's pain really that bad? No wonder he hated Eduardo so much... he thought he heard Perlina's name, and Felipe blinked hard.

"Alright." Said Felipe, tightly. "I'll come back later, shall I?" He turned to leave.

"Don't hurry back." Said Caesura, a little too loudly. Felipe looked daggers over his shoulder. She was like an evil step aunt - always hovering by to advise his father. She also disliked Felipe, probably because she and Perlina had never gotten along and she hated young macaws, anyway. He smirked with mischief.

"Sure, Senora Tremaine." That was the name of an evil female in a story told to chicks. Caesura made a hissing sound, getting the reference. _"Ssh!"_ Felipe mocked, mimicking her voice, flying off the branch before she could cuff him on the head with her wing. He enjoyed pressing her buttons; he knew he shouldn't, but he liked winding others up.

He momentarily wondered where Ricardo, Lena, and Azalea had gone. He saw the first two in a tree, but Azalea had vanished. He worried about his girlfriend's cousin a lot, even if she seemed to hate him for no apparent reason. But then Felipe spotted Adelaide come in from the side, a look of suspense on her face, as if worried someone had caught her doing something wrong. "Adelaide!" she flew into the trees, not hearing. _"Adelaide!"_ he caught up with her outside the kapoks.

Adelaide turned round, jumping. "Oh, hey, Felipe." As Felipe flew towards her, she tried to look innocent. She felt guilty, for talking to Jewel - their conversation had been longer than she'd intended, because they'd gone off an a tangent. They'd started talking about their favourite fruits, as random as that sounded. She'd felt as comfortable around Jewel as she was to Felipe and Azalea in a good mood.

Felipe landed, looking worried - of course, she knew why. Adelaide smiled, not just to pretend she hadn't seen the tense encounter with Eduardo, but also because the sight of Felipe made her feel better. The deep worry on his expression faded somewhat too, at her smile.

"Sorry we disappeared on you - Eduardo turned up with Tiana and Mimi, you won't believe -" Adelaide pretended to sound shocked as he recounted the incident, because Felipe had no idea she'd seen the encounter out of view. He recounted the whole scene, his and her worry returning.

"So... what will Rojo do?" Adelaide's heart weighed heavily in her chest, as she awaited the answer.

"He's having a migraine again. I can't tell him yet." Felipe pushed a wing through his head feathers, as he realized the seriousness of Eduardo's warning.

"He has to give the land back, Felipe." Adelaide sat down, and Felipe flopped beside her, looking defeated. They gazed into the trees, silent for a moment, as they looked at the sun slicing in shards through the canopy, at looping vines and bright flowers breaking up the green canvas.

"Of course he won't give it back. Rojo... my father... he wanted this to happen. We all know it now. Him and his stupid inner circle hate Eduardo, they've been waiting for an excuse for years to bring him down. War's coming, I know it..."

"We can't let that happen!" Adelaide said, fiercely, suddenly coming alive. She whirled to face him, and Felipe looked taken aback at her energy surge. "If we're not going to get along, we need to make the best of this situation. There are peaceful alternatives to fighting, you know. Methods that might... make them happy, at least." Them being Rojo and his friends, of course.

"Like what?" Felipe asked, exhausted, echoing Jewel. Adelaide glanced to the left, into the forest. Following her gaze, he saw a piece of fruit fly through the air, to be caught by a Scarlet chick. With a giggle, she kicked it to another, who sent it flying into the Green-Winged team's goal. Felipe looked at Adelaide. "You are clever."

"I have my moments." Adelaide smiled with the corner of her beak. "A game. If someone were to persuade Rojo that a match between our tribes, to... to sort out borders... he'd be pressured by the tribe to do that, and he'd get the opportunity to get what he wants - and when we lose, the borders could be restored. The tribe wouldn't let him do anything else, surely." The words tumbled out, she was so anxious about the whole thing.

"That's a lot of assumptions, Adie." Felipe said, quietly, and Adelaide bit her lower beak, identifying the flaws. "The problem is... if _we_ win... this won't be solved. Eduardo won't let us keep those groves and we'll be back to square one."

"That's why we _don't_ win." Adelaide looked a little uncomfortable at what she was about to suggest.

"What are you getting at?" Felipe asked, tilting his head.

"I'm saying, we have a few words with our players. Perhaps we tell the goalkeeper to let a ball in, maybe the piece of fruit just... slips..." Adelaide folded her wings. "It's not foolproof. It's very, very not foolproof. But at least there's a better chance of us stopping a war." For a moment, Adelaide considered telling Felipe about Jewel, but then she thought better of it. Would she seem like a traitor, telling Jewel all of this? And if Rojo found out, he'd be after her blood...

 _Meanwhile_

"-I don't know _what_ to do. The only thing I can think of is to battle him! He won't just give it back, we all know it!" Jewel's heart plunged with disappointment. She'd been hoping that she wouldn't hear something like this, but now it seemed as though she'd gotten her hopes up too much.

Her father? He jumped to every assumption, but Jewel was with him this time. Of course the devious Rojo wouldn't just hand the groves back. Jewel relayed Adelaide's instructions in her mind. She didn't know how it would possibly work - would Eduardo, Tia and Mimi agree to it?

"Jewel, there you are! Where've you been?" Sophia greeted her.

"I got caught up. I'll talk to you later, I need to speak to them!" Jewel pushed past Sophia, accidentally knocking her into Roberto's wings. Sophia, blushing, clambered out of his grasp.

"You okay?" Roberto asked, in concern.

"I'm fine!" She exclaimed, in embarrassment. Over their heads, her older brother, Jespa, glowered as usual.

"So clumsy." He remarked, in a non-joking manner. Sophia looked away - it was well known she and Jespa didn't get along, although nobody was sure why. Meanwhile, Jewel heard her mother's voice.

"Well there must be a better option than going in there and fighting!" Tia sounded furious, moreso than ever before; Jewel rarely heard or saw her mother angry. _I'd better get in there before they attack one another..._ "You don't know for sure that he won't negotiate! You always leap to conclusions!"

"In his defence, Tia, I don't think Rojo will talk." Mimi's voice was heard. "But then, we could at least try... you have to go to that meeting tomorrow, both of you."

"He won't turn up." retorted Eduardo, sourly. Jewel landed outside and hurried in, to find her parents bristling, a frantic looking Mimi trying to calm the situation. Eduardo turned round in surprise. "Jewel? What are you doing here?" she never interrupted a heated debate - she always steered clear of them.

"I have an idea!" Jewel blurted out, without thinking. Tia glanced her way, eyes glimmering with interest. Naturally, Mimi brushed it off; she didn't think young birds had that much wisdom.

"Sweetie, we'll deal with this. You shouldn't be worrying..."

"What's this idea, Jewel?" Tia asked, with more faith than Mimi. "Your father apparently is at a loose end... when there are so many other choices." She added, slyly.

"Don't take a dig at me again -"

"Really? You've been making remarks _all day-!"_

"Stop it!" Jewel snapped, silencing the pair of them. Tia and Eduardo didn't make eye contact, glaring at the floor. Jewel knew she had to tread carefully. "Right. Why don't you rule out this fighting plan first, for a more peaceful one?"

"He won't talk -"

"I know. You've said it enough times..." Jewel said, hurrying on before Eduardo realized she'd said it. "If he won't give the land back, why don't you... play for it?" She just dropped the idea without much build up, so desperate to stop bloodier conflicts. They had a little place called the Pit of Doom...

"Play for it?" Mimi asked, in confusion; Eduardo and Tia knew exactly what she meant. Eduardo looked unconvinced and unwilling.

"The last time we played for a piece of land, Ara broke her wing."

"That was against the Hyacinths, Eduardo. They're cheats, we all know that." Tia said, flatly. "But... it will work. It could work..."


	17. Secrets

Tia waited beside Eduardo, her claws digging into the rock beneath their feet. The last time they'd been here, almost all of the leaders had been gathered to discuss the illness, which had since completely phased out. The heavy rains had helped wash the land clean of disease. Perlina would have been perched on the opposite rock, she remembered, sombrely.

"I highly doubt this will -"

"Shut up."

"It could also be a trap." Eduardo replied, but the poisonous look Tia gave him made him realize he'd pushed enough buttons.

"It's a good sign they sent a message to tell us to meet them earlier than arranged." Tia said, coolly. They'd been surprised when a Blue-and-Gold macaw, Santiago and Hortense's daughter Johanna, had turned up with the message for them to meet the red tribe's leader in the meeting grove at sunset, rather than the following noon. Blue-and-Gold macaws were so friendly they could pass through most territories without being questioned, so they were often asked them to send messages to enemy tribes. Johanna had apparently been sent by a Scarlet macaw called Adelaide. "Maybe it means Rojo is willing to talk."

"I suppose." Eduardo admitted, gruffly. He glanced at Tia. "I'm sorry for all the horrible things I've said. I'm just concerned for our safety." Tia knew that deep down, but he still made her angry.

"I know." She replied, a little softness returning to her Brazilian-tinged voice. Then her guard went back up. "Someone's coming." The ferns were rustling behind the rock designated to the Red tribe's leaders. Eduardo began to naturally bristle, anticipating the arrival of the middle aged, battle scarred bird he loathed. But they were instead greeted with a green-eyed gaze staring out of a teenaged face. "Felipe?" Tia asked, unable to hide her surprise. They waited for Rojo, but he didn't appear. Felipe, alone? That was unusual.

"Rojo sent me. He's... having a migraine." Part of that was a lie. Rojo had no idea Felipe was there. His inner circle had no idea either. They'd be furious when they found out, but he was willing to take that risk.

"Well, at least you're here." Eduardo said, putting up a civil manner - he certainly wouldn't prefer to see Rojo, but he didn't trust Felipe anymore than his absent father. However, guilt crawled through him; Rojo blamed him for these torturous migraines, he made that no secret. "Why did you send Johanna for us?"

 _Well I certainly wasn't going to sashay into your home to tell you myself,_ thought Felipe. He definitely wasn't telling Eduardo he'd arranged to meet early so Rojo would still be too hollow bound to meet. Indeed, the slate covering the hollow hadn't moved an inch, and nor had his loyal Caesura Tremaine and the unnamed male, hours later. "I thought it would be easier if this was solved sooner." He said. "Between you and me, I don't think we need those groves. I don't want to be your enemy."

Tia looked almost expectantly at Eduardo, waiting for him to make a bitter remark, but to her surprise and relief, he stayed silent. "We agree." Tia replied. "So what is Rojo's course of action? Has he agreed to return them?"

"Of course not - I mean, no." Felipe coughed to cover the sarcastic reply. He wasn't being rude at them, but he had a feeling Eduardo would take it the wrong way. Tia closed her eyes, and Eduardo's went up in flame, as expected. "However... he's offered you a way out of this without violence." Eduardo - and even Tia - immediately looked suspicious.

"What's the catch?" Asked Eduardo, through narrowed eyes. It was very un-Rojo.

"The noon after tomorrow... arrange a team of your best, most agile macaws for a game in the Pit of Doom. If you win, Rojo will return your groves and we can put all this behind us." Felipe was sure they could hear his heart racing inside his chest, as he imagined the two Spix's refusing and insisting they battle for it.

"I don't believe... I'll be a..." Tia was muttering in shock. Felipe tilted his head, waiting for an answer, confused by her reaction.

"Deal." Said Eduardo, swiftly, as if expecting Felipe to suddenly change his mind and retract the offer. "We'll be there."

"Alright. Looks like we're done, here." Felipe began to back away, wanting to get away as soon as possible. Tia was still blinking in surprise; Eduardo had to tug on her wing.

"Tia?" She glanced at Felipe.

"Thank you." She said, eventually, before following her mate. "We were going to suggest that..." she whispered to him.

"Are you complaining? Thank goodness we've been given a non-violent option!" Eduardo and Tia disappeared, still not believing the coincidence. Felipe, unaware that this was his girlfriend's doing, went back the way he came, dreading telling Rojo.

For a moment, all was still - then the ferns by Santiago and Hortense's rock shook as they emerged from hiding. Jewel and Adelaide, like a pair of undercover spies, had been there to see the whole thing. "They agreed!" Adelaide looked as relieved as someone being told that it was the end of the world, only to learn that it wasn't ending afterall.

"Felipe was brilliant. I can't believe he handled it so well..." Jewel too looked relieved. Her fluffy feathers began to smooth back down; they'd been on end for hours with anticipation and fear.

"You sound surprised!"

"Well, I've been raised anti-Red, so..." Adelaide laughed, surprisingly not taking offence. She sat down on a patch of ground, as if struggling to take in her relief.

"So what happens now?" Jewel asked, breathlessly.

"Felipe has a word of advice with our Pit of Doom team - a few of our friends are in it, they'll help. Blanche and Mitch hate Rojo as much as you guys... they'll make sure your team wins." Adelaide sounded confident. "Make sure your team is alright."

"We got Stanley, he's a great shot. Stella, my mom's friend, she's one of the fastest... we have a decent team." But there was still something nagging the back of Jewel's mind. "But if we lose... my dad isn't going to let this go." Adelaide glanced at her as she sat down too, on a stone. "What'll happen to Felipe, when he tells Rojo all this?"

"Whatever it is, I'll handle it." Adelaide replied, although her gaze was uncertain and full of fear. "He scares me - Rojo has a temper. I guess you know that."

"He clawed Roberto that time he kept us prisoner, because I said something stupid." Jewel said, self-explanatory. "What if he refuses to let your team go?" Adelaide didn't know how to answer that - Rojo had every authority to do that, and the spiteful bird he was, it was more than likely he'd do that. The question went unanswered, and the silence dragged on painfully. Fishing for a topic, Jewel spotted something on Adelaide's ankle.

"That's pretty. What is it?" She asked, curiously. It was a string of some sort, possibly a thin strip torn from a vine. Strung onto it was an amber coloured, translucent stone. Adelaide slowly looked down at it. She'd only started wearing it in the past two weeks...

"It was found in a tree a few years back. A present, from my dad to my mom..." Adelaide fell silent, and suddenly Jewel regretted asking. A droplet fell from her eye, and she harshly wiped it away. Jewel blinked, realizing she'd upset her.

"I'm sorry... did something happen -" _I'm making it worse! Don't pry!_ "You don't have to answer that, I shouldn't be so -"

"No no, it's alright." Adelaide reached down to feel the amber anklet, comforted by the smooth and cool surface. She drew in a breath. "I can't remember my dad. He caught the illness when I was a hatchling, so... that's not the worst part. But my mom died two weeks ago."

 _"Two weeks?"_ Jewel stared, mortified, at Adelaide. No wonder she'd snapped at her yesterday - she had to be devastated. Jewel had no idea what to say; what could she say to someone who had just lost their mother? "...I'm really sorry."

"It's fine." Adelaide didn't feel so bad now that she'd said it out loud. She had to talk about it. "Felipe's helped me through it. My aunt's getting over it, but my cousin Azalea... she's taken it badly. I'm worried about her..."

"What's up with her?" Jewel asked, leaning against the ferns, feeling it was safe to ask. She and Adelaide gazed upwards, up at the snowflake-dusted sky of stars. The shards of ice glittered overhead, bright against the darkening backdrop.

"She's always been a little strange. Nothing mentally, I'm sure." _She doesn't have a problem like Jespa, then._ Jespa, Sophia's cold brother, wasn't quite right in the head. He talked to air, hated everyone and Sophia for apparently no reason - he was harmless, but still a little off. "But she's always seemed a little cold and rude to pretty much... everyone, except for me and her mom. She just shuts everyone out. I'm her only friend, and she seems to hate Felipe too."

"She could just be... still grieving."

"It's not since mom went. When we were kids she wasn't so bad, but it's gotten worse overtime." Jewel didn't know what to suggest. _Roberto was a bit odd when he came to us... something happened to him he won't talk about, but he seems okay now. He didn't have to discuss it, everyone's different..._

"...maybe there's something you don't know about going on in her life. Talk to her. Maybe she just needs to open up about her feelings." Adelaide wondered about this. She had never had a deep conversation with Azalea, and she disappeared for hours during the day. Was there something Adelaide didn't know about?

Once again, Jewel and Adelaide had gone off on a tangent. They'd met in this clearing to see the meeting between Eduardo, Tia and Felipe, only to fall into unrelated discussion. They talked casually, not consultatively. More like friends than allies. "That's alright." Jewel smiled at Adelaide, before remembering that the sky was growing starry. "Well, it's getting late. I should get home before my parents notice I'm gone."

"Yeah, I should go too." Adelaide got up, turning to her before she went. "Thanks, Jewel."

"Should we meet again?"

"Why not? After the match, we'll meet by the rapids, where the vines hang in the water."

"Okay, I'll see you then!" Jewel waved as Adelaide flew into the trees, not sure why she was. _This is dangerous. I'm trying to be friends with the girlfriend of the son of my father's most hated enemy..._ that wordy sentence was soon forgotten; Jewel didn't care.

 _Later_

 _"You did what?!"_ Adelaide froze, hearing the booming voice. That meant only one thing: Rojo's migraine had gone.

"Adelaide!" Azalea's voice rung out, as she came flying.

"What happened to your face, Azalea?" Adelaide asked, forgetting about the loud shriek - there was a streak of blood through the white skin that surrounded Azalea's beak. She reached forward to try and examine it, but Azalea shook her off.

"It's... nothing." Azalea's eyes flickered about, and she turned her face away. "Just a bit of fruit juice." Adelaide narrowed her eyes.

"Azalea, is there something you're not -"

"It was _you_ , wasn't it?" Suddenly a cold wind chilled them; the drafts from Rojo's wings. Azalea cowered behind Adelaide as Rojo loomed over them both, his eyes blazing on Adelaide. "You've made my son all soft, haven't you? I bet this ridiculous match was your idea!" A crowd grew around, but kept it's distance. Rojo was swelling like a bubble, his feathers bristling, his white skin going pink and then red as his rage worsened.

"What match?" Adelaide asked, weakly.

"It wasn't her idea!" Felipe came between Rojo, Adelaide and Azalea. "This is all on me." _But it_ was _my idea!_ Adelaide wanted to cry out, to protect Felipe from Rojo's wrath, but her terror smothered her voice and kept her beak firm shut. Juliana slowly came forward and pulled both Azalea and Adelaide back, away from Rojo and Felipe, who were circling each other like wolves.

"What's he done?" Asked Caesura, accusingly.

"Stay out of this, you interfering -" Felipe began, but stopped himself saying 'old piece of fruit'. He turned to the crowd. "I've made a deal with Eduardo and Tiana, the chance to get their groves back, with a match in the Pit of Doom! Who here thinks we don't need to provoke Eduardo by stealing land we don't need?" Although almost everybody agreed, most everybody didn't have the courage to voice their opinion. But most murmured in agreement, and a few bold ones cried out.

"We never needed that land!" Declared Blanche, and her mate, Mitch, was in swift agreement.

"You just took it to be spiteful!" He accused, and as Mitch said this, more began to advance with accusations, and Rojo's inner circle tried to defend him.

 _"We got that land for our future -"_

 _"What future? If we go to war there might not be one -"_

 _"Rojo did it for a reason!"_

 _"We shouldn't be stealing land from such a struggling species -"_

"Shut it!" Shouted Rojo, and silence fell. Even he knew he was defeated, with the crowd rallying behind Felipe, himself trapped in the middle of them. Shaking with anger, he turned his back on Felipe. "Fine. If you all want to throw away this opportunity, have it your way! Tomorrow, the team will train." He looked meaningfully at the members present in the crowd, including Blanche and Mitch who had so vocally opposed him. "What was the point, _son?_ We'll win, anyway!"

"Enjoy your tantrum?" Felipe muttered, not quite under his breath. Rojo spun his way, and for a moment, Adelaide thought he was going to strike Felipe. But then he stormed off through the crowd, his anger sending them flying to get out of his path. His inner circle soon followed. Caesura went up to Felipe, about to say something cruel. "Oh, go away, you old bat!" Felipe snapped, and with a huff, she stalked away. The crowd milled about for a few moments, before slowly dispersing. A few clustered around Felipe, offering support and gratitude. As soon as they were gone, Adelaide escaped from Juliana's side.

"You shouldn't have taken the blame." She whispered. But Felipe shook his head.

"I don't care about what he says. He's nothing to me."


	18. Moods

The atmosphere was hideously awkward. Felipe tried to look away, but he felt Rojo's gaze boring into him. He'd just emerged from the hollow he now shared with Adelaide, Juanita's old one, knowing he'd be unwelcome in his home hollow - and he didn't feel safe sleeping in the same room as Rojo. How unfortunate that they'd come out of their hollows at the same time and crossed paths.

"Stop looking at me like that. It's not my fault Eduardo wanted to meet when you had a migraine, and when your buddies wouldn't listen to a word I said." Said Felipe, smoothly. Rojo continued to glare with utter hatred, but didn't say a word. "Oh, you're giving me the silent treatment now? That's just fine. I'd rather not hear a word you say." Felipe felt familiar enjoyment, poking Rojo with a stick.

"You think your mother would be proud?" Rojo hissed, when Felipe turned to fly off. He felt the familiar wave of pain, but for once, didn't show it. He turned around, meeting Rojo's yellow stare with bold olive green eyes.

"Yes, she would. She loved Tia and the Spix's macaws. It's just a shame you decided to ruin her life by splitting the tribes, isn't it?" Felipe went away before Rojo could slap him, exhaling deeply. The match was tomorrow, and he was going along to observe the training - as well as have a word with the team members to do their worst. Well, the half that hated Rojo.

The tribe was losing respect for Rojo, fast. They were more likely to listen to Felipe now, and a few Rojo supporters had even made the daring accusation that Felipe was trying to take over the tribe. Of course that was a lie - he didn't want to be a leader yet, and nor did he want to get rid of Rojo, no matter how much he despised him. Rojo was in pain, so Felipe had to sympathize with him. He was grieving for Perlina and waiting for the next torturous migraine. And Felipe couldn't bring himself to cast Rojo away. He was still his father, and Felipe still remembered those rare moments of genuine affection Rojo had offered him in his early childhood.

Felipe flew a distance from the kapoks, to a secluded grove of walking palm trees which was usually where kids and teenagers would play matches - today, it was to be used for real practice. He loved playing this game - he was rather good at it, but Rojo obviously didn't want him playing for reasons like "You'll let them win" or "You're not good enough". Inspiring words from a loving father.

Luckily, Rojo was angry enough with Felipe to forget that the team had members who despised him - five key players, including Blanche, Mitch, Tambo and Delilah, who hated him. And fortunately the fifth happened to be Juliana. The problem was that five other members supported him. One was a daughter of a member of his dreaded inner circle.

By some miracle, when Felipe arrived, the pre mentioned Rojo haters were the first ones there. Juliana hadn't yet arrived, but Felipe could easily talk to her later. The younger two were Tambo and Delilah, a year older than Felipe. They were exchanging flirty looks as they kicked a piece of fruit to one another. The older ones, seventeen-year-old couple Blanche and Mitch, were perched in the goal, a comfy circle of vines. Blanche, named for the shock of unusual white feathers that splashed over the green of her wing, was speaking worriedly to Mitch. "...he's lost the plot... and I thought the previous leader was bad..."

"Hey!" Felipe greeted, as he flew in. Blanche immediately stopped bad-mouthing Rojo.

"What's up, bro?" Tambo waved.

"I need a word with all of you." The four flew over to him, hovering around him in a half-circle. "We all against Rojo, aren't we?"

"You're right there!" Delilah's lilac gaze blazed with passion; she didn't care what Felipe felt about Rojo. "He's lost it completely."

"No offense, Felipe, but he's -" Mitch began, less outspoken and more polite.

"Going mad? I know! I agree a hundred percent." Felipe grinned at the older male, who looked relieved. "Tomorrow noon, do your worst. Let the ball fall in the water, keep it as far from the goal as possible. We can't win this game..."

"We're with you, don't worry." Blanche assured him. "I'll do my worst. We'll practice as best as we can to make sure we make the team, but we'll make sure we make the real game a flop. Not so awful it's suspicious, of course."

"Right on." Tambo nodded beside Delilah and Mitch. "We gotta make sure the others don't outperform... you know, Drizelle."

"Oh, Caesura's daughter? That's just great." Mitch rolled his eyes at the reminder of one of Caesura's two daughters. Drizelle was only a little older than Tambo and Delilah, but they certainly had never hung out as friends. Her sister Anastasiya wasn't so bad and had unfortunately - or fortunately - stopped speaking to Caesura, but Drizelle was anti-Spix's and as unbearable as her mother.

Speaking of which, Drizelle had arrived, alongside the other three who would desperately try to win. Juliana eventually came in, looking more alive than in recent weeks. Adelaide and Azalea came after - even Azalea looked as though she wanted to be there, eyes glimmering with fascination and interest. The cousins perched on a branch to support Juliana, and a couple of others speckled the sides.

"Come on, move to the side, Felipe." Drizelle practically shoved him aside, yellow eyes glinting in an unfriendly manner not dissimilar from Caesura, who was thankfully absent.

"You've already done that for me." Felipe remarked, which earned a laugh from several listeners - Adelaide's peal of laughter made him feel warm. He made a beeline for her, landing beside her and Azalea. Azalea's eyes briefly acknowledged him, before focusing on Juliana.

"You had a word?" Asked Adelaide, glancing towards the good half of the team.

"Not with Juliana, but we can talk to her later." Felipe made himself comfortable, his side brushing Adelaide. Azalea leaned against some vines, wingtips curling around the nearest one, as she watched her mother get into position. A team of other macaws gathered to challenge them for practice.

"Go!" Drizelle's annoying voice broke the atmosphere from where she hovered in goal. _I hope she won't be that position at the real game..._ whoever was in goal would have a major impact on the turnout. Was there really a fifty-fifty chance of Felipe securing the future of both tribes, with five players being on his side, and the other half so determined to win?

At the same time, a long distance away, Jewel observed the gameplay with a strange mixture of excitement, fascination and dread. Across the grove from her, Tia and Mimi especially cheered wildly. "Go, Star!" Tia shouted, referring to her friend Stella. Stella, suitably like a shooting star, whizzed across the grove with a small orange kicking - or flying, it was so fast - from one talon to the other. Fake red team players, who had painted their wings red, followed in pursuit. Someone tried to intercept, but she was too fast and easily outpaced them. The orange shot into the goal and there was wild applause.

The atmosphere was surprisingly optimistic. The younger members were wildly excited at the prospect of watching their first match between tribes since there hadn't been one in so long. A few older members were more grim, painfully remembering the last match with the brutal Hyacinths, and at what was at stake; but overall, the tribe was generally positive.

Jewel perched alongside her friends. Roberto and Carlos were playfighting in the air as males their age always did; Tobias and Isabella were in a public display of affection, to the twins Trix and Catia's both amusement and discomfort; and Jewel was really the only one paying attention to the practice game. Was she the only one taking this entire dilemma seriously?

"Where's Sophia and Mani?" Asked Carlos, lighting down.

"Manuela and Soph were at the river last I heard." Roberto said, giving him a playful punch as he landed. "Ju-Ju, chill! You look so worried." She'd been so engrossed in the gameplay, worrying about the fact that Stella was the only exceptionally speedy one.

"Sorry. Lost in thought." Jewel crossed her wings. Roberto sat between her and the twins.

"Don't worry. It sounds as though that Felipe is on our side... even if I hate him." Roberto hadn't forgotten the violent first encounter with Felipe when they were kids, and he had a feeling his hate wasn't going anytime soon.

"Maybe you should give the reds a break. They're not all bad." Jewel was thinking about Adelaide, but the twins - as usual - stuck their oars in.

"What's the matter with you? Of course they're all bad news!"

"Their leader's _craaazzzzy_." Trix added to Catia's remark.

"I know, you put enough emphasis on crazy." Jewel didn't like Trix and Catia much. "Just because my dad's a bit bossy doesn't mean we all are. You can't assume that his tribe supports his plots."

"Since when were you so defensive of them? They kept you prisoner." Catia narrowed her eyes. "You loved bad-mouthing them when you were little. What's changed?" Tobias and Isabella glanced their way, distracted from their _pda_ , while Roberto looked from Jewel to the twins, awkwardly shuffling backwards so he wasn't between them.

"Why are you making a deal out of it?" Jewel bristled defensively.

"Why are you defending them so surely?" Trix pressed, loving putting her on the spot because she didn't particularly like Jewel either. Now everyone was looking at Jewel, both interested by the question and made nervous, sensing an argument. Jewel looked around at her friends, feeling six pairs of eyes; discomfort and pressure crawled like insects, and her tongue tied. She couldn't mention Adelaide!

"Oh shut up, Trix!" Jewel snapped, before whirling round and storming away, angrily kicking a half-eaten nut out of her way as she did.

"Sheesh, what's her problem?" Catia asked. "We didn't say much."

"Uh-oh. Argument alert." Mimi whispered to Tia, who pulled her eyes from the game, seeing Jewel storming off. Roberto looked after her, wondering whether to follow; but then Tia made eye contact with him, and flew over the game and past Jewel's friends, following her, giving him a look that told him not to worry.

Jewel, annoyed, was stripping an acai branch of it's berries and throwing them into a pond. Tia landed softly a few feet behind her, a little cautious, knowing Jewel had inherited Eduardo's angry tendencies. "So, what's up with you?" Jewel spun round, hearing her mother's voice. Tia stood there, one wing covering the other, a gentle smile on her face.

"Just the twins being annoying." Jewel said, bitterly. Tia sat down next to Jewel.

"Trix and Catia? Well, give them a break. They learned from their parents. When we were kids, wow... they loved stirring things up. They lived in my group before we came together to form the tribe." Jewel kept forgetting that the Spix's macaw tribe had once been two warring groups, her mother and father being the ones to bring them together. "I'm sure they're just bored. What were they doing?"

"They were just asking stupid questions." Jewel said, in a closed voice that warned Tia not to probe further despite her concern. She knew her daughter inside-out - she knew asking would be dangerous territory.

"Alright, then. Sure you're okay? I'm not seeing much of you lately. You're not sleeping well, are you?" Jewel tossed and turned and had weird dreams. She struggled to sleep sometimes - she'd get out of the nest, stepping over Roberto and edging between her parents, to sleep outside; clearly she wasn't careful enough in not waking Tia.

"I'm just worried about tomorrow, if we lose."

"We won't lose." Tia said, firmly. "We have a good team. And if we don't... we'll make do with our other groves. Why are you worrying? You should be having fun. Come here." She looped a wing around Jewel, wingtips on her head. Jewel leaned on Tia, heart thudding as she considered telling her mother her secret. Her mother was who she loved most - she could trust Tia not to say anything about Adelaide.

 _But then she'll just worry._


	19. Game on

It seemed as though reality had finally kicked in - as Jewel stood on the rock with her friends, she noticed that they finally seemed to be worried. Carlos, Manuela, Isabella and Tobias were whispering frantically, Trix and Catia were unusually quiet, and Sophia had a toe crossing the other on each foot. Roberto was anxiously chewing his wingtips, his eyes on the red team. Three young ones, seven older ones. Jewel briefly wondered which one was Juliana, Adelaide's aunt, but she noticed one was looking into the audience, directly at Adelaide and a similar aged teenager with hazel eyes.

"I'll be right back." Jewel passed over the heads of her tribe, flying down to the bottom row where her family was. "What's taking so long?" Asked Jewel. The team was anxiously waiting, being given some words of inspiration by Eduardo. Stella, Stanley, Eunice and Freya, alongside six others Jewel didn't know the names of.

"Rojo hasn't shown up." Mimi replied, fearfully. Did that mean the match was off? The majority of both tribes were present, but it was perhaps half as full as usual, because some were too nervous to watch the match themselves or see the reaction of either leader when they lost. So where was Rojo? The red swathe was whispering in suspense, worried that their leader was a no-show. Adelaide was talking to Felipe, looking desperate. He spoke back, looking anxious, but then he looked up and pointed.

Rojo finally appeared, a group of mostly older Scarlet and Green-Winged macaws surrounding him like bodyguards. The entire group - Jewel guessed this was his 'inner circle' - was glaring at the wave of blue, especially Eduardo and Tia. Jewel winced when Rojo's yellow glare bore into her. She immediately knew he recognized her.

Rojo landed on the bottom row of the red side of the pit, reserved for the players and the leaders and sometimes their families. He looked up at his tribe, but Felipe made no move to show he was going to join him there. Some of his inner circle didn't land - they flew out to the 'pitch', a pool of water dotted with rock arches and columns, vines strung across.

The team exchanged confused glances as some very physically capable members came out. "We're going to do this differently. We're going to swap out some members." Adelaide's eyes locked with Jewel's.

"Swapping out: Mitch, Juliana, Delilah."

"What? You can't do that last minute!" A male Green-Winged shouted, presumably Mitch.

"That's not fair!" Declared the young female, who had to be Delilah. "We practiced all day -"

"The decision stands! Move! You can be substitutes." Rojo shouted. Jewel suddenly felt unbearably hot. This was bad. Adelaide had said five members hated Rojo, and the mentioned members had included birds called Juliana, Mitch and Delilah. Juliana would have certainly been against Rojo.

Delilah angrily stormed into the crowd and Mitch looked for a long moment at one of the remaining team members with white wings instead of green. Juliana was looking furious as she began protesting, but Caesura mentioned: "We decided your grief would make you less efficient." Juliana's eyes blazed with offence and she barged, hard, past her.

"Fine! I hope you fail." She spat.

Adelaide breathed hard. Only Blanche and Tambo remained to ensure that the score stayed low. Against eight of Rojo's _brutal inner circle, who would want to win._ Rojo had cleverly swapped out three members who had openly protested against the move to take land. Delilah was outspoken and always making her opinion known, Juliana was close to her and Felipe, and Mitch had been part of the outcry when Rojo had confronted Felipe the other night. But Tambo kept his opinion to himself, and Blanche, despite being outspoken, was a good player. Of course Rojo wasn't making it obvious.

"We're doomed." Felipe whispered, on her other side.

"We'll have to hope that they'll need three extra subs." Azalea made a rare contribution to the conversation between Felipe and Adelaide. "Yeah, I'm still here." She said, somewhat testily. Adelaide's eyes flashed.

"I didn't forget about you, I -"

"Go!" Suddenly Adelaide's attention was torn to the game. Drizelle and Blanche dived for the ball to get first kick, but Drizelle beat her teammate. She smirked at Blanche who glared before Drizelle went soaring across the pitch. Blanche and Tambo looked at each other, before racing on the outer rim, around the blue team, trying to get Drizelle to pass to them.

Drizelle wove between the stone columns, closely pursued by Freya who tried to tackle the ball off her, but Drizelle cleverly swung towards her, forcing Freya into a tangle of vines. Drizelle kicked to another red who sent the fruit flying into the goal, missing the goalkeeper, skimming Eunice's talons by inches. Some of the Red tribe celebrated as the first point was recorded by the red scoremarker, Caesura's estranged daughter Anastasiya. She looked nervous that they were already in the lead; she was against Rojo too.

"1-0!" Shouted Mimi, trying to conceal the anger in her voice. Kickoff again; this time, when one of the red team kicked, Stella intercepted and whizzed over the pool. Red macaws tried to stop her, but her kick to Stanley flew over their heads. Freya had escaped from the tangle of vines and managed to catch Stanley's pass - into the goal it went.

Jewel watched anxiously as the match wore on. Stella was an asset to the team, seemingly always there to catch and pass, but she wasn't enough. The red team was brutal - within six scores, three blue players had been injured including Eunice, the goalkeeper - the best one they had. The job was given to Twilla, but three of their best players had already pulled out. _3-6._ Once it got to ten the game was over. They needed seven to win...

Blanche frantically waved at Nova, who kicked to her and she caught it - there was a flash of white as Blanche sped to the goal. Twilla prepared herself; but Blanche kicked. Instead of going into the goal, Blanche hit too low, and it bounced back off the rock that fringed the goal. She shrugged, looking remorseful; but she winked at Felipe. Blanche and Tambo had prevented at least two scores for their team so far, but it wouldn't help for long. When the ball came to her again, she aimed it at Tambo, who, to the unknowing, wasn't quick enough to catch it. Stella speeded in, snatching it from the air. But then two red comets barreled into her. There was a great splash.

"Foul!" Screeched the Blue-and-Gold macaw who had been asked to referee, Alejandro. "Caesura and Drizelle, off! I saw that!" Stella had just been brutally thrown into the pool of water below by the mother and daughter, purposefully. Stanley swooped down and plucked her from the water, but Stella was otherwise unharmed and could still play despite being a little waterlogged.

"Lies!" Caesura accused, but fellow Blue-and-Gold Johanna was there too to confirm. Caesura and Drizelle glared at each other as Mitch and Delilah rushed out to replace them. Adelaide and Felipe exchanged hopeful glances, before Adelaide looked across at Jewel with glinting eyes. Anastasiya smirked from the scoremarking rock, watching her estranged family leave in shame. Rojo glared at Caesura.

"Good old Johanna." Tia said, next to Eduardo.

"It's not over yet." He said, worriedly. "We're 5-8!" Two more scores, and the groves were lost.

"This is a nightmare! I can barely watch!" Sophia exclaimed, anxiously.

"Hang in there! We can still win!" Roberto assured her, but he didn't sound confident. Jewel was hopping on the spot with suspense, and her heart thudded with hope as Freya scored. 6-8. The blue scoremarker, Cerulean, joyfully marked it.

"We're getting there!" Manuela sqeauled; but then, minutes later, Twilla failed to catch the fruit. Optimism dropped like a stone as the score eventually came to 8-9.

"Oh, we're going to lose!" Trix wailed. The crowd was cheering like never before but the dread on all of their faces was clear. On the bottom row, Eduardo had his wings wrapped over his head, Tia was covering her beak, and Mimi was pacing. Tia looked frantically up at Jewel, who looked back with big blue eyes. _It's okay!_ Jewel wanted to cry out; but the situation was getting dire.

"Come on!" Tia shouted, as if seeing Jewel had given her hope.

Over the pool, Lillium, a blue, intercepted a shot from one of Rojo's friends. She shot to Carmen, who scored. 9-9? Had it ever been this close? The tribes were screaming now. "Go on!" Jewel was leaping up and down. Across the pit, Adelaide was clinging onto Felipe's wing; her other hooked Azalea to her side. Azalea, swept up on the game, clung to Adelaide and she, Adelaide and Felipe cheered - not for the red team, but in their minds, for the blue team. Azalea, there with the suspense and excitement, dropped her closed shell for a moment.

"Oh, look!" Felipe exclaimed. Mitch had the ball; Delilah waved, and he passed to her. Nova swarmed forewards, waving frantically to pass, but Delilah purposefully threw too high. Stanley caught it, and gave a powerful kick. It flew half the width of the pool, plunging downwards. Tambo and Stella dived towards it, but Tambo pulled up his wings. Stella plucked the fruit, and flew. She passed to Freya, who took aim. Pablo in the red goal lunged - but Freya kicked hard. Pablo missed by a metre.

"10-9! The Spix's macaws win their groves!" Alejandro shouted. Felipe could have sung his heart out there and then had Rojo not opened his beak and screamed.

"Failures!" He screeched. "You let them win!" Luckily it seemed as though he wasn't targeting Blanche, Mitch, Tambo, and Delilah - he seemed focused on his failed inner circle, who he had trusted to win. Juliana smiled at the four players; she hadn't managed to be a substitute, but she was relieved nonetheless.

"It's over." Adelaide breathed. She leaned on Felipe, and put her other wing around Azalea.

"Yes! I knew we could do it!" Roberto crowed. The Spix's macaws were cheering in wild relief and joy. The team had Freya on their shoulders for scoring the winning goal; Jewel's friends pulled her into a group hug; and down on the bottom row, Tia and Eduardo had embraced. Mimi was celebrating on her own, springing up and down.

The blue macaws swiftly began to depart, aware of Rojo's shrieks. Jewel stared, in shock - she barely felt Sophia pulling her away. The red tribe was quickly leaving, not wanting to watch Rojo's meltdown. Felipe, Adelaide, and Azalea stared downwards as he began viciously kicking rocks, insulting his inner circle. He whirled round, seeing Felipe, Adelaide and Azalea staring. "Well? You got what you wanted! Get out of here!"

"We need to leave." Felipe pulled Adelaide's wing, and she pulled Azalea with her. They quickly flew up, over the edge of the pit. Below, Rojo was eventually left alone. He glared across the pit, where the blue tribe had been moments before. There was a strong wind, carrying Rojo's hiss.

 _"This isn't over."_


	20. Blissfully unaware

Jewel waited for Adelaide, wondering whether she'd remember to show up after all the excitement of the game. She waited on a root that hung over the water, small fish flitting about beneath her. She watched them darting under the surface, knowing that it was too shallow for something dangerous to leap out and snap her in its jaws, so she let her toes swirl through the water.

Everyone was rejoicing, so sure that it was over at last. Even Eduardo seemed to be genuinely unworried, because they'd won fair and square, in front of so many witnesses - there was no excuse for Rojo to steal land now. Even the Red tribe seemed relieved that they'd gotten their land back. The red scoremarker had been smiling.

Mimi had been singing all the way back, and eventually, Roberto had joined in. Eduardo and Tia seemed to have put their recent disputes behind them, and they seemed like her parents again - loving, happy, carefree. It seemed as though it was over, the tribe was convinced.

And yet... something bothered her.

No matter how happy her parents or friends were, Jewel still hadn't gotten that horrible feeling off her chest, the sickening feeling that Rojo wasn't going to let it go. She couldn't bring herself to join in with the tribe dance - not only had the relief faded quickly, but as the tribe had flocked to paint themselves in red juice and yellow pollen, she'd taken the opportunity to sneak off to meet Adelaide. She'd joined in enough of them before, and even now 'Beautiful Creatures' was whirling round her head.

"Sorry I'm late." Adelaide, sounding flustered and annoyed, swept through the hanging vines, landing on a root in front of Jewel; immediately, she sensed something had happened. Her eyes glittered with traces of anger and frustration, and her feathers were tousled and fluffy with past hostility.

"Has something happened?"

"It's not important... I just had a few words with my boyfriend." Adelaide's eyes told Jewel it wasn't okay to ask, but she wasn't skilled on the matter - she was, unlike almost every other girl she knew, interested in getting a boyfriend, at least not yet. Nobody took her interest - Roberto was more like a brother to her, and she was, likewise, a sister to him. Everyone else was either taken, courting, or boring. She almost felt as though whoever her future lay with, they wouldn't come from here. "So... Rojo just had the most childish meltdown I've ever seen." Adelaide interrupted her thoughts.

"That was something. I wish I'd been around longer to see the whole thing." Jewel knew it was safe to talk in this manner about what could be Adelaide's future in-law, as her opinion was so popular among red macaws. Adelaide let go of her anger, cracking a smile and laughing.

"He's in an awful mood... Felipe thinks he's not going to let it go, but he can't do anything. He lost in front of everyone! He has no excuse now!" Adelaide was so relieved, that unlike Jewel, she thought it was over. Jewel listened, a little disturbed that she was the only one who was concerned. But she didn't want to talk about it.

"Well, I need to let off some steam." Jewel shook herself, determined to ease her worries.

"Any suggestions?" Adelaide tilted her head. "Something fun..."

"Race you to the river!" Jewel and Adelaide, in childish joy, went racing down the rapids, headed to the main river. A blue and a red blur whizzed through the air, laughing, their friendship firmly planted and starting to grow. It was a sad irony - they were the embodiments of how things could've been between their tribes. At this point in time, peace was a fantasy.

 _Meanwhile_

"I didn't think he'd react that badly." Felipe admitted, as the pit faded from view. "He's acting like..."

"A chick who just had some acai berries taken away from them?" Azalea suggested, voice laden with mockery.

"Must you be so sarcastic all the time?" Felipe asked, irritably. He'd tried to stop Adelaide from leaving him alone with Azalea, knowing the awkwardness to come, but she'd hurried away before she could hear his protests. She'd just spontaneously rushed off, saying she had to be somewhere. Now, making small talk with Azalea was making him uncomfortable. She wasn't making it easy for him to talk to her; she answered bluntly and he practically had to make the entire conversation. It was trying to empty out the ocean with a coconut shell - going nowhere.

"Your sarcasm doesn't seem to have an end." Azalea replied.

"You know, if me and Adelaide are getting closer, you might have to start getting used to me being around. Maybe start being nicer to me. I'm really trying here."

"You didn't seem so close a moment ago." She said, coolly. Felipe was irritable not only because of Azalea, but a few words he'd just had with Adelaide. She seemed so naive, believing that there was no more problems, that Rojo wouldn't dare try anything else. Felipe's stomach churned with dread, because he had a horrible feeling Rojo was crazy enough to do something far worse now that he'd just been humiliated in front of his most hated enemies. They'd argued for about five minutes over their contrasting opinions, until Adelaide had suddenly insisted she needed to be somewhere and rushed off, leaving Felipe to awkwardly accompany Azalea back to the Kapoks.

There was a long pause from Azalea, and she slowed for a moment, as though about to say something meaningful; but then she shook herself and sped up, as though to get away from him. Felipe looked after her in frustration, before putting on a burst of speed, determined to get to the bottom of their whole dynamic. He overtook her and abruptly turned around, blocking her path.

"Why do you hate me so much, Azalea?" He asked, boldly. Azalea blinked her pretty hazel eyes, feigning ignorance. "I know you're not the sociable type, but ever since the day we met you've seemed to openly hate me." Azalea's beak remained clamped shut. "What, because I threw a berry at you when we were kids?"

"Don't be stupid. I'm not that petty." She didn't seem to be lying; she showed none of the obvious signs of a lie.

"So, you admit you don't like me?" Felipe pressed.

"You've given me no compelling reason to like you." Azalea answered. But Felipe knew that couldn't be all.

"Doesn't mean you have to be so rude to me."

"I'm rude? You hypocrite." Azalea dodged the subject, smirking in triumph. "I've heard you call Caesura Senora Tremaine."

"She deserves it -"

"Well of course she does, she's a right old bat." Felipe was surprised - and even amused - by this. He tried not to smile, but it was too late. "Why are you smiling?" She asked, sounding threatened, thinking he was mocking her.

"You can be quite funny sometimes, you know." Azalea initially took this as an insult, but Felipe quickly rephrased. "You're quite witty. Even if it's not always nice." Azalea frowned a little; she was rarely complimented. Still feeling the awkwardness however, he turned and flew into the tree canopy, about to leave Azalea; but the moment he did, he was turned back by a loud shout. Pausing in the leaves, Felipe saw them coming into view. They'd waited for him to leave before approaching their favourite victim.

"-look who it is!" Yelled a ghastly voice, and Azalea suddenly changed. Her face flooded with dread and fear as a group of teenagers came charging through the leaves. To Felipe's annoyance and confusion, it was the group he and his friends didn't like, the ones who were often the source of rumours and cruel remarks. He narrowed his eyes as three of the worst ones hovered, somewhat threateningly, before Azalea. He remembered; Maria, Leonardo, and Heliconia, who's unusual name came from a flower.

"So, loser. We saw you jumping up and down at the pit with a stupid grin on your face." Heliconia announced, sweeping her long, spiky head feathers over her shoulders. Felipe blinked. What was happening?

"I was having fun. A smile tends to happen when you have fun." Azalea snapped, as though talking to a small and stupid chick. She started to bristle heavily as the trio began to circle her like vultures, awkwardly hopping from branch to branch, to surround her.

"We know what today is." Leonardo declared.

"Well done. So you've finally learned the days of the week." Azalea's eyes betrayed her words. Her hazel gaze was afraid.

"It's been exactly so many months since your daddy left. Your mom's having her monthly depression day." This has hit a nerve, but Azalea didn't show it.

"Oh, so you haven't learned to count, either."

"I wonder where he is?" Maria sneered. "Probably kissing a younger and more attractive female than your mom, someone who can't have kids and witter on about responsibility. I guess all he wanted was the physical -"

"I actually think Juliana's quite pretty -" Leonardo began, on her earlier comment.

"Shut up, you're not helping." Heliconia snapped, before turning on Azalea again. "From the beginning, nobody wanted you, did they? First your dad abandons you; then, when you were a meek little hatchling, your mom ignored you, didn't she? You had to be raised by your aunt Juanita until Juliana stopped moping about, crying about her boyfriend." Azalea's eyes grew dangerously dark. Her talons clenched, and dug into the wood beneath her.

"Shut up."

"Nobody wants you now." Maria added, ignoring the warning. "Adelaide keeps vanishing with Felipe. Juliana still mopes about. Nobody wants to talk to you! You're always on your own. Adelaide probably only talks to you because she feels sorry for you!" Felipe listened in absolute horror, frozen, unable to interfere.

To their delight, Azalea bit back. "That's not true!" Her claws were slowly dragging across the branch, leaving deep gouges.

"It must be _you_. Your dad didn't want you, no one talks to you... it must be you who's the problem! Maybe that's why your dad abandoned you; he needed an excuse to get away from you! It's your fault your mom is depressed -" Heliconia was laughing; but then Azalea lunged. Her claws caught the side of Heliconia's face, and the Green-Winged macaw shrieked. Leonardo seized Azalea, wing wrapping around her neck.

Azalea tried to look unafraid, but her eyes showed her terror as Heliconia lifted a wingtip to her bloodied cheek. Heliconia's eyes darkened. "You'll pay for that. Maria, you have sharp claws. I don't think Sapa left a decent mark last time." The 'blood' on Azalea's face the other night which she had insisted was fruit juice - really had been blood.

"What are you doing?" Exclaimed Felipe, suddenly coming to life. He had been so absorbed in watching the confrontation, that he hadn't stepped in to stop the cruelty. He swept down from the leaves, and Leonardo immediately dropped Azalea when he realized who it was. She lay on the ground, coughing, because he had been holding onto her neck so hard. Holding onto her throat, Azalea looked up with stunned eyes as Felipe stood protectively in front of her. Leonardo, Heliconia and Maria advanced threateningly. He thrust his wings forward, hitting Leonardo in the chest. "Beat it!"

Heliconia held her clawed face, angrily. "I'll tell my dad what you did, Azalea."

"What are you, five weeks old?" Felipe asked, mockingly. "Running to your dad. You're sadder than I thought." Heliconia's skin went pink with humiliation, and then, she and Leonardo backed away.

"You're dead next time." Maria hissed, at Azalea, but Felipe swarmed forwards, shoving her.

"Are you deaf? I said go!" He yelled, and then Maria sauntered away with Heliconia and Leonardo. Felipe turned, looking down at Azalea, and she looked up at him. He cautiously extended his wing, but she didn't take it. She gave him a look caught between despair and anger, before getting up sharply and pushing past him. "Azalea! Wait a minute!"


	21. Drawing closer

"Azalea!" Felipe called, for the eighth time. She ignored him, flying as fast as possible, but he was fast enough to stay close. "Stop!" Azalea, with great reluctance, slowed down to land on a branch. Her head hung, almost in shame, as Felipe lighted down too. Her beak shook but didn't open to form words. "Azalea..."

"Please don't." She murmured, but Felipe sat down anyway.

"How long?" Felipe asked, in a voice that wasn't to be argued with. Azalea hesitated. Terrifying thoughts spun round her head, as she worried about what that group would do to her, if they found out she could spoil their fun. She wasn't the only victim, but she was their favourite. "How long has this been going on? Tell me." Felipe asked again. It took almost a minute for her to answer.

"...a few months." She managed, wings hugging her own body, as though to protect herself from their horrible words and attempted clawings nobody knew about. Felipe noticed the scab on her face Heliconia had referenced, where it interrupted the unmarked white skin. He turned her head slightly, so he could see it better, but she shook him off.

"They did that?" He asked, appalled. Azalea turned her face away.

"Sapa did that. I said something out of line, and... she lost it. Luckily Rojo started yelling before she could do anything worse." Suddenly Felipe's former dislike towards her faded. All he saw was someone who was scared and on her own, with no one to turn to.

"Why do they do it? Why haven't you told anyone?" Felipe asked, trying to put as much kindness into his voice as he could, to show Azalea that she could trust and talk to him, despite their strained relationship. Azalea made a tight grimace, eyes glassy.

"I guess I didn't help myself when I was little, always miserable and sticking to Adelaide like glue. Plus with my mom and... my father... they had a lot to tease me about. And I couldn't tell mom. I don't feel... I don't..."

"You don't feel close enough to her?" Juliana and Azalea weren't as close as a mother and child should be, as the bullies had pointed out; Azalea had been ignored for the first few weeks of her life with Juliana in misery, during the key bonding time between mother and hatchling. Azalea still had a little resent there, angry that Juliana hadn't put her over her grief.

"Yeah. I don't think she'd understand. Plus there's never been a right time. Most of my life, she's been missing that waste of space... after that, stuck in her grief for Nita. I don't feel as though I can talk to her." Felipe thought about his own relationship with Rojo. He couldn't confide in someone who was supposed to love and support him. He hadn't helped that, but still.

"But why didn't you tell Adelaide?" Azalea looked embarrassed and ashamed, her skin flushing pink; her eyes flooded with fear at the thought of what could happen.

"I'm afraid of what they'll do to me if I tell somebody. You know what they're like. They're the sort that'll come after you if you tell on them."

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen..." Felipe felt a sickening dread at the thought of Azalea being on the receiving end of their cruelness - and he'd heard some of things they'd said. He wondered why he felt protective of Azalea, when they had never seen eye to eye. "I know you don't like me much, but -"

"I don't hate you." Azalea sighed with closed eyes. "Honestly, I don't." Felipe blinked in surpise, a frown creasing his brow. She wasn't lying; he saw it in her eyes.

"Then... why do you make it hard for me to talk to you? Why are you so..."

"It's just..." Azalea hesitated before speaking. "To start off with, I was so moody I was already horrible to you. But as I got over it, you started dating Adelaide." Felipe blinked. "Adelaide's all I have. I suppose I was worried that she'd forget about me when she started going out with you. That I'd lose my only friend. I know how childish that sounds..." Felipe was so surprised, it took a long time for him to think of an answer. That was what she was afraid of?

"Oh, Azalea... that wouldn't happen. Adelaide's always saying how she loves you like a sister, she'd never put me over you."

"... and it's Rojo."

"Huh? What's he got to do with this?"

"I... don't laugh. I suppose I'm jealous. You have a father." Felipe went to protest that he didn't really, but Azalea spoke before he had the chance. "I know, he can be... horrible. But you had the choice, of how things would be. _I_ didn't." Azalea's hard, emotionless shell was falling away to reveal the soft, emotional pool within. Her heart slowly moved onto her wing.

"Talk to me, Azalea." Felipe saw now that Azalea needed to talk about it; she'd bottled up her feelings all her life, and she'd been winding up for a long time. She shook slightly with this long-contained anger, and finally, she unclenched her talons. Somehow she felt comfortable, telling the bird who'd she'd felt threatened by until now.

"My first memory... is my father storming round the hollow, stamping like a chick, shouting at my mother. I was so little, but I remember." Felipe thought that sounded familiar; one of his earliest memories was Juanita rushing into the hollow while he was still crawling around his nest. She'd been frantic, telling Perlina: "They'll kill each other!" That was all he really remembered, but then he thought he'd seen a male that resembled a Green-Winged - Azalea was part Green-Winged, afterall - storming across the kapoks, disappearing into the trees.

"They were circling each other, having it out. He was screaming at my mom, blaming her for having me, although it's obviously his fault too, which she screamed back. It's all your fault, he said. He was telling her he didn't sign up for a kid, how they had just gotten together, all that..."

"He told her he didn't love her, that he'd find someone... better. It was horrible, and they started fighting there and then, rolling about the hollow, almost onto me; I swear, he seemed to be trying to do just that, to crush me. So then she screamed at him to leave, and... do you know what he said, right before he left, to put more salt in the wound? He said she should've thrown my egg out of the tree before I hatched."

"That's..." Felipe was lost for words. He imagined such a traumatizing scenario, so young and innocent, brought into a world of resent and violence. No wonder Azalea had grown up so bitter and hostile; she didn't want to get hurt. "...that's horrible. I didn't know it was that bad. I just thought he left quickly and... not so explosively."

Azalea kept back her tears. "He didn't want me, but do you know what hurts most? My own mother didn't want me either. She blamed me for him leaving. She told Nita to get me out of her sight, the moment he left. She ignored me, came to see Juanita, and she'd just walk right be me. She'd coo over Adelaide, but ignore me. She snapped out of it, and she was sorry, but... I don't know if I can forgive her."

"Nobody wanted me, Felipe. So as I got older, I kept thinking... neither did anyone else. I still think it now. They... Heliconia and her pathetic gang... they've drummed that into my head too. I grew up miserable, thinking about my father and my mother, feeling so self-conscious and just like a - a nobody."

"That's not true, Azalea." Felipe was stunned by this revelation, but he somehow found words. "You're not a nobody. You're not unwanted, either. Adelaide loves you, and Juanita adored you. I remember when you and Adelaide came out of the hollow for the first time, she was so loving and attentive to you. When you're not around, everyone say how they want to talk to you, but they can't, because you won't let them." Azalea's brow furrowed as she contemplated this. Now she thought about it... she didn't feel so angry about her father, or Juliana, anymore. Not now she'd told somebody. She looked back on her misery, and wondered why she'd been so cold.

"...I suppose." She said, in a soft voice. She looked at him. "Thank you. And... I'm sorry for being so cold to you, since... well, all the time."

"Come on. We're going to go back, and I'm going to tell each of their parents what they've done to you. And from what I've heard, a lot of them don't take too kindly to this sort of behaviour."

"But what if they come find me?" Azalea asked, shuddering at the thought.

"I'll - we'll protect you." Felipe extended his wing to help her up. "Friends?" Azalea looked at his wing, considering - this time, she took it.

"Friends." She said, almost cautiously. Only the second one she'd ever made.

 _Meanwhile_

"The dolphins don't talk. They won't tell my parents, and besides, they wouldn't stir things." Jewel said, when Adelaide worried. They'd been flying over the river, when the river dolphins had started leaping along with them. Eduardo and Tia loved flying alongside them - they had a silent bond, since they couldn't understand the high-pitched sqeauks and clicks made by the dolphins. So they'd never know Jewel and Adelaide had been flying together.

"If you're sure." Adelaide shook off the worry, before kicking the surface of the water, showering Jewel in droplets. She gave Jewel a look of innocence.

"Oh really?" Jewel smirked.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Adelaide released a high-pitched sqeaul when Jewel slapped the river surface and sprayed her with water, and they began kicking tidal waves toward one another, shrieking in laughter, blissfully unaware of the shadow growing over them. But then Jewel caught sight of her reflection, and the looming grey face above.

With a screech, Jewel pulled Adelaide out of the way; a huge set of talons plunged into the river where Adelaide had been, and for a brief moment, Adelaide let this sink in, that Jewel had just saved her - but then the talons lashed forwards, bringing her to reality. Adelaide sprang clear, and began screaming at Jewel to flee.

 _I used to play hide-and-seek with them!_ This time, Roberto wasn't the one chasing her, simply pretending to be the bloodthirsty predator. This was a real Harpy eagle, twice the size of a Hyacinth, with hellish yellow eyes and ragged feathers the colour of slate. It's crest rose like a mountain on its head, risen by the excitement of the hunt. It's beak was like a fish hook, curved and glinting in the sun, and from this beak, an ear-splitting screech tore the air apart. Genuine bloodlust shone in its gaze.

Jewel and Adelaide raced into the trees, but to their horror, the eagle followed, screeching, lashing it's talons. Jewel felt the air whoosh past her tail feathers as the eagle tried to swipe her from the air. "This way! Follow me!" Adelaide raced through some vines, and Jewel followed; for a moment, the eagle crashed against the vines, unable to get through - momentarily, they slowed, thinking it couldn't get through.

 _Hiss._ Jewel whirled round. A brown vine was hissing, coiled on a branch before them. Jewel's heart leapt into her throat as she realized it was a snake. Dappled black and brown with huge black eyes, it was slithering towards the edge of the branch, closer. "Let's get out of here!" She shrieked, veering left - but then she realized she was the only one moving. "Adelaide! What are you doing?!" Adelaide was frozen in shock, staring at the snake. Fangs, piercing into Juanita's chest.

The eagle was fighting through the vines, not seeing the snake, screened from view by Adelaide, who was stiff as a board despite her hovering wings. The snake recoiled ever so slightly, but Jewel knew that it was going to spring. "Adelaide! For _goodness sake -"_ She threw herself forward, plunging into Adelaide, sending them flailing towards the forest floor, where they hit the ground and went flying into some ferns.

Where Adelaide had been, the snake leapt, and at the same time, the eagle broke through and went flying forwards - seeing the snake, it released a shriek of panic. The snake landed on the eagle, and attempted to coil, but the eagle fought back, and the snake started slipping off. Just like Juanita's killer, it started flailing towards the forest floor, while the enraged and traumatized eagle went crashing through the trees.

Jewel picked herself up from where she'd rolled to a stop - or been abruptly brought to a stop by a large rock. She lay there, face-down in the dirt, momentarily stunned by a blow to her head. "Argh..." she put a wing up to her temple, where she'd felt something sharp - it came away red. "Great." She stumbled to her feet after a few dizzy moments, staggering slightly. Slow, gradual anger began to build as she remembered the stupidity. Adelaide had been frozen in the path of both a snake and an eagle; she could've gotten them both killed.

 _What was she thinking? Idiot!_

Angered by this, Jewel ventured into the ferns where she'd seen Adelaide go flying. She found her, facing away. Jewel let her rage spill, unknowing. "What were you doing? You froze! If I hadn't gotten you out the way, you'd be in the middle of being digested by now, because of that stupid snake!"

"Shut up!" Adelaide whirled round, and Jewel leapt back in shock. Adelaide's eyes were flooded with tears and terror, and grief made her voice high-pitched. She shook like a leaf, caught in a memory.

"What's wrong? It was just -"

"My mom was killed by one! Happy?" Adelaide's face crumpled as she remembered the green bolt, first sinking its teeth through Felipe's wing, and then through Juanita's chest, where she'd floundered like a dying fish. The tears spilt, and she broke. It was so spontaneous and out of the blue - she hadn't remembered the event for so long - but this was her first encounter with a snake since. She covered her face, tortured by the boa constictor's black eyes, black as death. The Harpy eagle was completely forgotten.

"I'm sorry." Jewel's voice broke through Adelaide's visions of a thousand snakes chasing her, Juanita's screams replacing their hisses. Not sure what else to do, Jewel did the only way she knew how to comfort somebody - she hugged Adelaide, and she didn't resist. Adelaide let Jewel hold her tight, as she waited for the tears and screams to stop.

After a few minutes, Adelaide pulled away from the hug, the tears finally at a stop. "I'm sorry for freezing up..."

"Don't be."


	22. Unravelling

_Adelaide staggered through smoke, unable to see, unable to breathe. She was following someone - or chasing? Being chased? There was a_ _patch of blue - water, or something living - ahead, and a red one, following her like a bloodied eagle. Ribbons of fire came down like snakes, out of the smoke, so Adelaide didn't know where the next one would fall. She was terrified, blind, deafened, senses plagued by smoke. She heard voices screaming for her, voices blurring into one so she couldn't tell which ones belonged to Felipe, Azalea, or Juliana. The bloodied eagle whirled round with blazing yellow eyes, so familar, before crashing down on her like a wave._

"Jewel!" Adelaide leapt awake, unsure whether that voice had been in her nightmare, or real - she'd still been surrounded by smoke when it had pierced the air, but now it was being shouted through the leaves. Somebody was coming. Frantic, Adelaide sprang to her feet and dived into the a hole in the tree trunk, forgetting her dream.

 _Why... did I get up?_ Jewel thought behind closed eyes, her usual waking thoughts. She frowned, wondering why she was being shaken like a coconut. She pried open her eyes: she was jolted awake by her mother's face taking up her entire vision. "What _are_ you doing here? Do you have the _slightest idea_ as to how worried I've been?"

Tia's feathers were on end, her teal eyes ablaze. Jewel blinked, and, still tired, swatted Tia away so she could sit up. Adelaide's trauma had confided them to a tree, where they'd stayed up for hours talking. Mostly about Juanita, who's lifestory Jewel now knew, from their long talk. They had talked into the night until they'd drifted off, Adelaide before her. She looked around for Adelaide, but couldn't see her.

"What happened to your face?" Tia demanded, and Jewel remembered hitting it on a rock. When she felt it, the horrible crusted feeling told her that her face was covered in dried blood. "When I saw you lying on the branch, face drenched in blood, I thought you were dead! What happened?" Tia was trembling, so relieved that Jewel was okay, and outraged at the same time.

"I, um... just scratched it on a branch."

"Sleeping out in the open, out here? What were you thinking?" Jewel noticed Kida behind Tia, a similar look of relief and anger on her face, while Mila milled behind her, uncomfortable with confrontation.

"I'm sorry. I must've drifted off."

"We've been up all night, waiting for you to come home!" Tia raged, shaking her, as if to knock sense into her. Angered by the needless worry she'd been under, Tia let Jewel go, and spoke in a high-pitched voice that came with both anger and relief. "Now, come along! We can call off the search parties, we've sent out eight! Your father and Mimi's going barmy -" Tia began to drag Jewel away, followed by an awkward Mila.

"Wait." Kida said, and they paused. Jewel's heart sank when she saw the red feather Kida had clutched in her talon. "What's a red macaw feather doing, this far into our territory?" Jewel realized with fear that, during that chase yesterday, she and Adelaide had blindly raced deep into Spix's macaw territory. If Adelaide had been caught this far in, who knew what would have happened? But she'd left evidence behind.

"Well, it might have blown over here." Mila suggested, mildly.

"Blown over here? My talon -"

"I saw it fly in." Jewel blurted out, in slight panic. The three females looked quizzical. "Yeah... it just drifted down from the sky. Maybe one of them was just passing, they're allowed to take short-cuts over the trees as long as they don't fly below the tree canopy."

"It's a pretty thick canopy..." Kida said, suspiciously.

"I'm sure it's nothing." Tia, beginning to calm down from her motherly rage, insisted. "It's breezy today, it probably slipped through. Now come on, before my mate starts asking Rojo if he's kidnapped our daughter." Jewel was ushered away by Tia, as Mila whispered soothing things in Kida's ear. After a few moments, Kida finally smiled at something Mila said. She tossed the feather away, and she and Mila followed Tia and Jewel with brushing wingtips. When they'd faded from view, Adelaide slowly emerged, breathing a sigh of relief. She slid down onto the branch, waiting for her heart to slow down, trying not the imagine a confrontation. For some reason, her nightmare had slipped from her mind.

She felt closer to Jewel than ever before, after yesterday - not only had Jewel saved her life twice in a matter of minutes, but Adelaide had managed to confide in somebody about how crushed she'd been with Juanita's death. She had told Jewel things she hadn't dared tell Felipe or Azalea. Being friends with Jewel felt as right and natural as flying.

The discarded feather caught her eye. Tipping her head, Adelaide picked it up. Adelaide remembered seeing it on the branch when she and Jewel had landed in this tree, only then she'd thought nothing of it - _wait. Then... it can't be mine?_ She frowned, holding it close to the face - no, it wasn't hers. Not only was it a flight feather too dark to be her own, but it was fringed with green. She wasn't a Green-Winged macaw - in fact, if she had to match it to someone in particular, she'd say Caesura or Alfonso. Both members of Rojo's inner circle.

Adelaide held it in her claw, as she raced through the canopy to get over the trees, so she could pass without being challenged. Jewel was right, it was an old tribe rule that one could take a shortcut through territories as long as they flew over the trees. The only ones who disregarded it was the territorial maniacs - or to be more polite, the Hyacinths. But Kida was right about the thick canopy, Adelaide had struggled through it. But then she saw movement, below, and she dropped. Red movement, in Eduardo's territory.

"Why did Rojo want us here again?"

"We're here to steal their stuff. At least this is the plan, until he thinks of something proper." Adelaide stared in confusion, not understanding, with a lack of context. Drizelle and Nova; they'd both played in the match the other day, not in on the plan to let the other team win. They were picking every piece of fruit they saw and throwing them to the forest floor. _Something proper? What does that mean?_ Adelaide forgot to stay and listen for more infomation, for she was already racing away to tell Felipe.

The scene below could be summed up with a few words. _Gasp - shriek - glare - ashamed of you all._

"I told you so." Felipe leaned against a tree trunk, with a smug look - not at Azalea of course, but at Heliconia, Maria, and the other ones who'd tortured Azalea for months. They were cowering under the rage of all their parents. Felipe had had the luck to find them all together, where he'd gleefully told them all that had happened.

"They'll know you told them... what if they..."

"That's why I asked their parents to say they'd found out themselves." Azalea glanced up at Felipe with relief, but before she could reply, they were distracted.

"Felipe!" Adelaide's voice broke out, and they looked in it's direction. She was flying towards them, and for once, Azalea didn't sink into misery like she did when Adelaide and Felipe were together.

"Should we tell her?" Felipe asked.

"I don't know... she does keep asking me why I'm constantly in a mood..." Azalea hesitated. "I'd rather she'd find it out from me. At least then she won't hear a worser version of the truth..." Adelaide landed beside them. "Adelaide, I need to talk to you -"

"Not now, Azalea."

"It's important -"

"Later, I need to talk to Felipe." Azalea blinked in hurt, feeling swept under the moss. This was why she'd felt moody alongside them - she felt ignored.

"Adelaide, it's important." Felipe insisted.

"I've just seen Drizelle and Nova stealing food from the heart of Spix's macaw territory, again." Said Adelaide, before they could tell her. Luckily Azalea understood, but Felipe was less considerate.

"Is that really more important than -"

"It's okay, Felipe, this can wait. What do you mean, in the heart of their land?" Azalea asked.

"Remember that time you saw them gathered at the border? They're still trespassing, and it sounds as though Rojo's plotting something. They said that stealing their food was the plan... until Rojo thinks of something 'proper'. And I found this, meaning somebody's been even deeper into their land!" Adelaide waved the feather. "Felipe, you -"

"Wait." Felipe narrowed his eyes. "How did you come by that feather? If it was... as you said, in the heart of their land." Adelaide's heart began to thud as she realized her mistake. Slowly, she put the feather out of view, despite it being futile. "That must mean you... you were in their land? Below the tree canopy?" Azalea instinctively went to defend her cousin, but then a strange look entered her eyes as she looked towards Adelaide, realizing.

"I... I..." Adelaide's tongue felt swollen, so she couldn't form words. She didn't make an excuse or convincing lie fast enough; by now it was obvious she'd trespassed herself.

"What were you doing there?" Azalea asked.

"I was just..."

"Adelaide, are you crazy? You're so dead against trespassing, but you do it yourself? Do you know how reckless that is?" Felipe asked, feathers slowly rising. In response, Adelaide began bristling defensively.

"I was following them, for your infomation."

"But still, if you'd seen them go in, that would have been enough! Adelaide, someone could've seen you. They could've held you hostage, or attacked you!"

"There you are, being judgemental again." Adelaide hissed. Azalea slowly backed away, for she was right in the middle. Her eyes flickered cautiously from Felipe to Adelaide.

"I'm not judgemental! I'm being logical. It's not being judgemental if it's normal tribe behaviour to confront a trespasser."

"They're not as bad as you think."

"Oh yeah? What makes you so sure? They're not the Blue-and-Golds. Especially with what's been going on recently, it's not hard to imagine they'd attack any red macaw on sight -"

"Just back off! Get off my back! At least I'm concerned with keeping peace -"

"Uh, who faced Eduardo and Tiana to ask them to arrange a more peaceful alternative to fighting? Oh, I did. Does that ring a bell?"

"Only because it was my idea!"

"I didn't have any better ones!"

"Because you were too cowardly to face Rojo yourself -"

"Stop it!" Azalea shouted, and several heads turned their way. She lowered her voice. "Stop acting like children. What's wrong with you both? You were fighting yesterday as well. Just chill, you're getting worked up over nothing -"

"Fine, I'll go!" Adelaide whirled round and stormed off the branch, glaring at Felipe before she went.

"For goodness sake - Adelaide!" Azalea raced after her, flashing an apologetic look towards Felipe. Felipe watched them disappear, confused by the whole ordeal. It was as if them being together was alright for while, before they started bickering over something stupid. What was wrong with him and her? Adelaide kept disappearing, sneaking away, and when she came back, they often fought. _Well, at least Azalea doesn't hate me. If I can't talk to Adelaide, at least I've got one more friend to talk to._

And yet, the original problem still stood. He picked up the feather Adelaide had presented to them, trying to match it to somebody. It wasn't in good condition - it was dull and not very soft, a Green-Winged. But the shade was distinctive, the red almost plum-coloured; like Caesura, or Alfonso. He could narrow it down to Rojo's inner circle, he didn't think any other right-minded bird would trespass for such a stupid reason.

Adelaide didn't know why she'd overreacted the way she did. But when they were together, something didn't feel complete. She used to feel the giddy warmth of being in love, but something had changed. She didn't like how Felipe seemed to sweep Rojo's shenanigans under the moss, how he didn't have the courage to talk to Rojo. They argued over stupid things. It was as if being with him wasn't... right.

"What was that?" Azalea was perched beside her, looking a bit cautious, unsure how Adelaide would act towards her. "That was unlike you."

"I don't know. I don't think..." Adelaide stopped herself telling Azalea about her worries. "Don't worry about it."

"Are you sure? I haven't seen you recently. You didn't come home last night... we thought you were out for a night flight again. I wouldn't normally be worried, but I am." Adelaide was known for being out after dark, on her own, so if she wasn't in the hollow in the morning, nobody tended to worry. But she'd come back and fought with Felipe first thing, no wonder Azalea was concerned.

"I'm fine. But you seem... different."

"Don't worry about it. I've just had a chat with someone, and I've realized something, that's all." Azalea decided against telling Adelaide about her ordeal, not wanting to worry her. "Tell me why you keep vanishing every day. I barely see you."

 _Well, I'm not telling you about Jewel._ Adelaide assumed Azalea would feel threatened by the prospect of her making friends with someone else, although she didn't know yet why Azalea used to stick to her like glue. But she hadn't been there this morning, to see Azalea talking, rather cheerfully, to Tambo and Delilah about the match yesterday. She'd actually been sociable for the first time, without having to worry about Heliconia's gang, or waking up in a mood. "I'm just worrying about Rojo's plan. I don't think Felipe's going to sort it - he's too afraid to."

"Give him a break. Rojo's not like everyone else - he's crazy, he flips out when you least expect it! If you were Felipe, would you stroll up to him and demand he stop his useless campaign against Eduardo?"

"Well, no way."

"Exactly. And why are you worried about Rojo? He can't do a thing. He lost very publicly, he has no excuse to wage war. The Spix's macaws can't be touched."

"When did you get on Felipe's side? Whenever we talk about him, you tear him apart."

"Maybe I've changed my opinion. It's time for me to grow up, and maybe you and Felipe can make amends. I'd like us all to be friends." Adelaide was shocked; had Azalea changed overnight? It seemed that way. Azalea hugged her, before flying into the trees. This time, there was no bully to surprise her, and no negative thought of her in Adelaide's mind.

Jewel slunk out of her tree, her ears ringing with Eduardo's shouts: _Awake all night, out of our minds with worry, thought you were dead - blah, blah. So what if I didn't come home for one night, doesn't mean I'm dead._ Her family over-worried. Wanting to steer clear of angry eyes and looks of disapproval, Jewel went down to the water's edge to see her face.

She was shocked; no wonder they'd freaked out the moment they saw her. The cut on her head had bled a long line down, drying all the way to the bottom of her neck, arching a long red claw. Jewel started to clean off the dried blood, pinkish trails trickling down until her feathers were back to light blue. The cut itself was tiny, barely longer than her claw, not including the toes. It would be gone in days, but the area felt slightly painful to touch.

"What were you up to last night? Mimi made it sound as though you were at death's door, before Tia insisted it was just a scratch."

"It looked worse than it was, Roberto." Jewel turned to face her brother figure. "I just scratched it on a branch and fell asleep. Is that a crime around here?"

"Well, no. But it's dangerous, to be out there!" She heard some anger in his voice, and was immediately defensive.

"Do you think I'm stupid? Of course it's dangerous. Don't point out the obvious!" She'd saved Adelaide from both a boa constrictor and a Harpy eagle.

"No need to snap!" Roberto said, edgily. "I'm just concerned about you."

"You sound just like my mother. Why does everyone keep saying, oh, where have you been, oh, we're just worried about you - I'm sick of it! I just need time to myself where I can't worry about Rojo, I just need to - breathe!" She pushed past Roberto, and rushed away, leaving a confused Roberto by the waterside.


	23. Unjustified

Felipe and Adelaide lay on a slope of thick grass, gazing up at the sky. "Those stars look like a pirahna."

"Of course it's not! It's a jaguar."

"You're blind as a bat! It looks nothing like a jaguar." Adelaide said, smiling to reduce the impact of her hard voice, but Felipe still heard it, and her smile didn't spread to her eyes. The stifling humidity made them feel unenthusiastic and tired; the last few days had been unbearably hot, and moods had been low. The grass they lay in was bone-dry, offering no respite.

Felipe had hoped inviting her to stargaze with him would be romantic, and just what she needed. Azalea enjoyed stargazing, she often spent hours just watching the sky, wing propped under her chin. She had been the one to recommend it to Felipe, because Adelaide was also a star enthusiast - but not now. The atmosphere wasn't bright or on top of the world - it was dull and grounded.

"What's happening, Adelaide?"

"What do you mean?" Adelaide asked, in denial, rolling into her side to face him.

"You know." Felipe's eyes were glazed ever so slightly. Adelaide leaned over and kissed him; but it didn't change. Her heart was no faster, and she felt no different. In fact... it was as though kissing him didn't feel right anymore.

"I have to go. I'm tired." Adelaide got up, and left rather quickly. Felipe went to protest, but he couldn't form words. He sat up, wing propped under his chin, like how Azalea did at night. He looked up at the stars, feeling more lost than ever. In his head, a song he'd heard Juliana sing a few times was going, but only one line.

 _"She used to be mine..._ _her heart used to be mine." You twit, we're just in a tiff. Don't think about it._

Felipe flew back to the kapoks, the night losing its magic; the stars didn't leapt out at him, and there was no moon to speak of. He and Adelaide were falling apart. They fought everyday, over stupid things. They didn't have the deep conversations they used to. When he thought of his friends Ricardo and Lena as a pair, he thought they fitted perfectly. They got along like a forest on fire, made each other better, and they just suited one another. But for some reason, 'Felipe and Adelaide' didn't sound or feel right. But he still loved her more than anyone in his life.

Felipe paused outside the hollow he was born in, but Rojo wasn't in it. His brow creased into a frown. _Nah. He's mad. Mad birds always wander out alone at night._ He went up to the hollow he shared with Adelaide, looking in. "Adie?" She lay without moving, back to him, breathing slowly to show - or make it look as though - she were asleep. Felipe couldn't bring himself to go in and get into his nest, which seemed to migrating further from Adelaide's.

"How'd it go?" Said a voice overhead. Felipe climbed up to the branch, just outside Juliana's hollow.

"I think she was too tired to really appreciate it, but thanks, Azalea."

"Give her time." Azalea's hazel eyes were fixated on above, reflecting the glossy starfire. "She's been a little off lately. I'm sure it's that, not you." Azalea had become so soft since her bullying ordeal had ended and she'd finally told someone about her inner torment. She still had that sarcastic and fierce side, but she turned out to be soft and sweet. She was gradually easing herself into being more sociable, and she was spending less and less time on her own. Felipe was glad to think he'd helped that happen, and it turned out they got along well.

"Adelaide and I used to do this all the time." She interrupted his train of thought, and he realized she meant stargazing. Felipe glanced up, looking for shapes in the stars, seeing the ones he and Adelaide had disagreed over.

"Settle this for me. Does that look like a pirahna or a jaguar?"

"I think it looks more like a cluster of stars." Azalea smirked with mischief, rather than hostility this time. Felipe found himself chuckling. "Honestly? I think it looks more like a river dolphin."

Down in the hollow, Adelaide heard Felipe and her cousin laughing. She was torn. She loved Felipe. She really did, but... she was starting to wonder if they had a future. _I can fix this... can't I?_ She heard 'good night' above, heard Felipe coming down. For a moment she thought she'd pretend to sleep - but instead, she sat up. He paused in the entrance, looking surprised. "Oh, hey..."

"I'm sorry." Adelaide murmured. "I'm just confused and... distracted." Felipe blinked.

"So am I." He replied, sombrely. Adelaide got up, and hugged him for the first time in days. _But does it feel...?_ Adelaide cut off her thoughts.

In the morning, Adelaide wandered out of the nest, breakfast the first thing on her mind; Felipe had been gone when she woke, so she wasn't sure where he was. He knew she wasn't a morning bird, so that was probably why he'd let her sleep on. "Hi, Adelaide." Said the soft voice of Juliana, above. "How was your romantic midnight date?"

"Uh..." Adelaide rubbed her eyes, memory fuzzy. "It was good, thanks."

"Good for you." Juliana gave her a tight smile, the one that looked as though she was in pain, for the subject of romance brought back painful memories. "Felipe and Azalea went out to get some breakfast with Miguel, in the mango grove."

"Okay, thanks." Adelaide smiled at her aunt, before heading toward the mango grove, only she changed direction halfway there. Jewel had said she'd be in the strawberry guava grove today, just before they'd fallen asleep. Was she was prioritizing Jewel over Felipe now? It seemed like it, but something was blocked in her brain that would send her to Felipe instead.

Jewel tossed a strawberry guava into the air, catching it in her outstretched wing from where she was leaning against a tree trunk. She'd apologized to Roberto for snapping at him, although he was still careful around her. Her family was giving her the silent treatment, still annoyed that she'd made them think for hours that she was dead or trapped somewhere, although she knew deep down they were just worried about her.

"I wondered if you'd come." She glanced to the right, hearing Adelaide land. "You okay? You look..."

"A bit tired. I didn't sleep well." Despite a glimmer of hope with their embrace, Adelaide had been worried about her and Felipe, trying to think of how she could fix it. She didn't think asking Jewel would help, since she didn't have and had never had a boyfriend. "Has your mom calmed down? I had to hide quickly, but I heard it all."

"She and my tribe's still annoyed with me, but I'll win them over. When Kida saw your feather, I almost died on the spot." Adelaide remembered that heart-stooping moment - and the argument that followed between her and Felipe. And she remembered - he hadn't done a thing about it. Her anger slowly returned.

"It wasn't my feather." Adelaide said, after a long moment. Jewel's cycle of tossing and catching the strawberry guava stopped, as she looked towards Adelaide.

"What? If it wasn't yours..."

"It was one of my tribe..." Adelaide told Jewel that she'd seen two of Rojo's associates stealing and wasting food, again. "And apparently Rojo's planning something... he's gone mad, Jewel. We never see him, he's always outside, and I'm certain he's plotting with his inner circle, because they've done a disappearing act too..." Jewel stared at her, with horrified blue eyes.

"So, Kida was right! There was a trespasser, after all."

"Other than me..."

"Yes, other than you!" Panic seared through Jewel, as she leapt to her feet and started pacing up and down the branch. "Do you know what he's planning? You have to tell me, Adelaide!"

"I don't know!" Jewel's panicked voice frightened Adelaide, making her own rise. "We don't know where he's hiding. And anyway, Felipe's either too scared or too stupid to confront him!"

"He's mad, no wonder Felipe's not jumping at the chance! If he won't, you might have to!"

"I can't! Rojo hates me with a burning -" before an argument could begin, they were distracted by a distant shrieking. Jewel whirled round, for she knew those shrieks. Adelaide stiffened too, recognizing the rest. "Don't tell me..." exchanging a look of horror, they raced for it. Shrieks of pain.

Roberto dived under a large leaf, curled up tightly, wings clasped over his head. Above him, he heard Kida and Mila, grunting and spitting, as they fought. Carlos and Tobias, also on patrol, were shrieking in fear, but Roberto was too afraid to move, or help. Blood trickled from his wing, a long set of claw marks scored into it by a Scarlet macaw. Sophia had raced away, fleeing to get help; had one of the assailants gone after her? He thought he'd seen a cold-eyed female, twice her size, follow her. They were hopelessly outnumbered - he heard nine different voices he didn't recognize.

"What are you doing here? Stop!" Mila shrieked, all timidness gone, but the taunts and squawks continued. "We did nothing to provoke you!" There was no justification given; just clawings and shrieks. After what felt like forever, a voice broke through the cloud.

"Roberto!" A wing pulled on his, and when he peered through his wingtips, he saw Sophia's terrified eyes boring into his. "I could only find two! Are you alright?" Her midnight blue gaze moved to his bleeding wing, and she covered the wound with her wing, not caring as his blood printed onto her feathers. "Stay here." She was gone, into the brawl. Roberto looked on in fear, around the leaf, before telling himself: he had to help. Despite the pain, he leapt out to help Sophia.

Sophia's heart pounded with adrenaline, confusion, and fear as she tried to help with Roberto in tow. Her protective mother would kill her if she knew what she was doing - her hateful brother Jespa would probably want her to get hurt. Ignoring it, she faced a young male Green-Winged, clashing with him, trying to drive him back. She'd found Stella and Stanley, who were now fighting alongside Kida, Mila, Carlos and Tobias. The adults urged her, Roberto, Carlos and Tobias to flee, but they ignored it.

Jewel and Adelaide leapt out of the leaves, staring in shock. "What's happened?" Jewel stared, unable to process it, but before Adelaide could respond, Jewel lost track. She saw Roberto, and abandoned Adelaide's side. He was trying to fight with a bloodied wing. Jewel threw herself into the inferno, bundling into the red macaw who was about to swipe at him.

"Jewel!" He exclaimed, in surprise. Remembering what her mother had taught her, Jewel began swiping with outstretched claws, working with Roberto to drive the assailant back, while Adelaide hovered at the side, frozen, unable to move. Caesura whipped her head up, staring at Adelaide with a look as though she'd been caught, but a powerful swipe from Stanley sent her flying.

Felipe and Azalea burst into view, brought by the shrieks. Miguel, who they'd been with, hovered behind with a look of disbelief. "We have to help!" Felipe didn't understand. He couldn't tell who started it, but all he knew was, he had to defend his tribe. He, Azalea and Miguel leapt into the fray.

"More have arrived!" Kida exclaimed, in dismay. Sophia swarmed forwards, picking an equal opponent: Azalea. Azalea, bristling, fought back, trying not to cause serious harm. As Sophia and Azalea brawled, Felipe tried to help. But something made him slow down: why was Caesura staring at him with a panicked look? In fact... all of them, apart from himself, Azalea, and Miguel... He connected the dots when he lay eyes on Caesura's panicked stare boring into him.

Azalea sent Sophia flying away, but then another female Spix's had leapt towards her, seeing Sophia go flailing. She looked somewhat familiar, and she thought likewise, but neither thought about it. Jewel, driven by adrenaline and the roar of blood in her ears, believing this was one of the first attackers, fought Azalea with unforgiving claws. Azalea cried out as she caught her just above the eye; blood blinded her vision. There was a whistle of air as Felipe plunged into Jewel, to get her away from Azalea. Spitting and hissing, Felipe and Jewel faced each other.

Adelaide snapped out of her trance when she saw Azalea go tumbling out of the inferno, horrified by the red bead trickling from just above Azalea's eye. "Azalea! Are you okay? What happened?"

"I just got here!" Azalea cried. "Felipe just saved me -"

"Felipe? He's in there?" Adelaide abandoned her cousin's side.

"Adelaide, come back!" Azalea shrieked. Adelaide ignored her, dodging flailing claws and bodies, finally saw Felipe: but her heart dropped to the rainforest floor. Jewel was fighting him, losing against Felipe. Caught up in the fight, angered by what Jewel had done to Azalea, Felipe didn't hit to miss. More claw marks appeared on Jewel, and she began trying to shield herself, rather than attack. Being stubborn, she didn't flee. Adelaide had originally gone to help Felipe. But then she saw the look of fear and the increasing pain on her friend's face, and suddenly wasn't thinking straight.

Adelaide went flying across the gap between them, and Jewel saw her out of the corner of her eye - at first she thought Adelaide was aiming for her, but to her shock, Adelaide went crashing straight into Felipe's side, knocking him away from Jewel. He hit a tree trunk with a brutal thud. His green eyes locked with Adelaide's.

Adelaide looked at him, mortified. Jewel hovered behind her, bewildered, as she finally recognized Felipe. She looked at Adelaide, and began to back away. But then there was a screech, announcing his arrival. Eduardo came crashing in between Jewel and Adelaide, sending the Scarlet tumbling away from Jewel. Eduardo ran his eyes over the scratches that marked Jewel, at Roberto's bleeding wing, before he whirled round, shrieking at the red macaws. _"Get out!"_ he roared. The red macaws lost all courage. They spun round and disappeared into the leaves, Azalea pulling Adelaide along with her. Felipe picked himself up from the branch, eyes tearing from Adelaide to Jewel, before he too raced away.

Mila was fretting over a large wound on Kida's neck, wing pressed to stem the blood flow - Kida swayed ever so slightly, eyes glossed over. Tobias was unconscious, Carlos trying to shake him back to awakeness, along with Sophia, who simultaneously covered her cheek to hide a deep claw mark. Roberto was frozen, eyes clouded with shock.

"What happened? Who started this?" Eduardo demanded, eyes full of flame.

"They came out of no where... no warning... no reason." Mila whispered. "This place is cursed... the fights never stop..."


	24. Dead inside

"It's not that bad. It's worse than it looks." Jewel winced when Mimi fretted over her wounds for the eight time in five minutes.

"Don't touch her wounds, Mimi! The paste will come off!" Tia snapped, from where she was smoothing a leafy paste into Roberto's injury. Jewel was patched with green paste, and she felt ridiculous. Her scratches felt better, but she was worrying; Felipe had just been tackled by Adelaide, to save her. Of course he'd be asking questions.

"Poor, sweet child... you shouldn't have gotten involved..." Mimi whirled round, soft tone gone. "What happened? Who did this, this - anarchy?" Mimi demanded, again.

"We told you. We were on patrol... and they just pounced on us." Roberto flinched when Tia felt a sore spot on his wing. "How's... everyone?"

"Tobias is coming round." Eduardo muttered, so absorbed in rechecking Jewel for any other scratches. "Sophia's cheek has only just stopped bleeding. Stanley and Stella got clawed pretty badly... and Kida's neck wound is in bad shape. And Mila... make sure you don't mention any of it to her."

Mila had been behaving strangely since being caught in the drama - she'd had a bad experience in a patrol battle with the Hyacinths a few years back. A wound - now a thick scar that snaked from her neck all the way down her side - had rendered her on the edge of death for days, but by some miracle she had survived. It had brought back terrible memories, and she was keeping vigil at Kida's side now, even if it seemed like Kida would make a full recovery. No one had dared tell Mila the wound had come within centimetres of a major artery.

"They attacked you... for no reason?" Eduardo was speaking in a dangerously soft voice. It was the one to be most wary of, the one that made any atmosphere go cold despite the stiffling heat.

"I think so." Roberto replied, flinching at his wound. "One of them... I remember when me and Jewel were stuck there, they were one of Rojo's friends..."

"I knew he wouldn't accept that match result. You saw his meltdown in the pit!" Mimi said, in exasperation. Tia rather viciously threw the wasted medical paste outside, before stalking out, and Eduardo followed her. Jewel swatted Mimi away.

"Oh look Mimi - Roberto's wing's bleeding again."

"No it's not -" too late - Mimi had abandoned Jewel and hurried across to Roberto. Free of her aunt's fussing, Jewel slipped outside. She looked about for her parents, and heard their voices up above.

"I won't deny it this time. What he's done is unforgivable and can't be ignored." Tia had not a trace of sympathy in her voice. She was too angry and tired to defend the red macaws and Perlina anymore. "I've pulled my head out of the sand. We need to do something." Jewel's heart constricted painfully.

"I'll ask the Blue-and-Golds to pass on a message. It's clearly not safe for us. We'll meet him tonight and resolve this once and for all."

 _Meanwhile_

"I'm fine." Azalea tried to push Juliana away.

"No! Your face is a state." Juliana held more sodden moss up to her still-bleeding wound just above her eye. Despite Azalea's clear annoyance, it was good to see Juliana showing more genuine love and care. Adelaide swayed slightly, shaken from what happened. She was confused, not sure why the fight had even happened - but the frightened look Caesura had given her gave her a hunch. Suddenly the light stopped streaming in, for Felipe now stood in the hollow entrance.

"How's your eye, Azalea?"

"It's fine, everything's fine!" Azalea was still trying to escape Juliana's fretting. Adelaide got up and silently brushed past Felipe. Leaving Azalea and Juliana's hollow, Adelaide tried to escape too, but the moment she got out of sight of the rest of the tribes, Felipe cornered her.

"What was that?" His face was deeply troubled, his eyes filled with a strange look. His feathers were tousled, a long claw mark on his shoulder. Adelaide didn't feel the usual urge to check his injuries.

"What was what?"

"Don't... _lie_ to me. Just... don't." Felipe said 'don't' in a soft voice, before it hardened. "You saved that random blue macaw. Look at what that tree did to me!" He pushed back the feathers of his wing, showing a puddle of black. Adelaide felt burning shame, and suddenly she wanted a hole to open beneath her feet and swallow her. "You went at me to... it looked like you were protecting her! Why would you?"

"Fighting isn't the answer!" Adelaide tried to lie. "You were being too violent."

"There was no need to knock me into next week! She was too stubborn to flee. And fighting is the answer when one of them tried to claw Azalea's eye out!"

"She wasn't the one who did that?" Adelaide asked, bristling at the idea of Jewel harming her cousin.

"No! That was someone else. You talk as if you know her..."

"I was just wondering of I'd knocked you away from my cousin's attacker. And why would I know her? I've never seen her before in my life..."

"Except she's the kid my father held hostage, isn't she?" Felipe had tricked her. Adelaide knew how good his memory was - he remembered, when Jewel and Roberto had been held, she had talked to Jewel through the tree. It was the day Perlina had collapsed, of course he'd remember everything that happened that day. "You talked to her through the tree, all sympathetic... as if you were friendly with her. Where have you been disappearing to, why were you trespassing on their territory the other day? To hang out with your blue friend? It's a bit of coincidence!"

"You're talking rubbish! You're making me look like the bad guy, when we know it's you!" Adelaide bristled until she was twice her size. "You're the one who can't be bothered to listen to my warnings! I told you that Rojo was plotting something, that his stupid friends are stealing from Eduardo's territory, but did you listen? No! Not once! You'd rather be hanging out with your friends or talking to Azalea than listening to me!"

"At least I talk to Azalea!" Felipe hissed. "The only reason she's been miserable her whole life is because she's afraid, and you weren't there for her! You didn't notice she was being chased and tormented by Heliconia's gang!"

"She what?"

"Yeah! That little detail you missed! You're too busy fretting about Rojo, when you should be there for your family! At least you have one!"

"I'm your family!"

"Are you sure? Because you don't make me feel part of one, not anymore!" Without thinking, Adelaide slapped him across the face. There was a long, dreadful silence, as Felipe slowly looked back at her. Adelaide immediately regretted that decision; it wasn't even that offensive to qualify a slap.

"Who... who are you? I don't know you anymore!"

"This... this isn't..." Adelaide felt tears spring to her eyes. "This shouldn't be happening. No, no, no..." She covered her face. Felipe wasn't even that angry from the pain stinging his cheek, or the dull one that throbbed in his wing. He knew immediately what was happening right now, was pivotal. "The past weeks, we've been arguing, over and over... I should've known it was a sign!"

"Adie... I'm sorry..." he tried to pull her into his wings, but she pushed him away, fiercely.

"No! I can't do this anymore!" Felipe tried to ask what she meant; but he knew. He tried to stop her.

"Adelaide, I love you..." He began, desperately.

"I don't love you enough!" Adelaide rebuked him, not thinking. But she couldn't take it back. In tears, she fled the scene. Felipe remained frozen to the branch, unable to follow. He took a few short, unsteady breaths, tears beginning to stream down his face - he collapsed inside. He sank, clinging onto a tree trunk for support. He covered his face, and his body shuddered as he wept. Juliana's song was right.

Adelaide's heart had slipped through his wingtips.

Adelaide went crashing through the forest, blinded by tears, unable to process her emotions. She didn't know where she was going, but she was more angry than heartbroken. Angry at Felipe, herself, for being so stupid. Felipe was right. She had been ignoring her family. When Juliana had wept over Juanita, Adelaide hadn't comforted her enough, or Azalea for that matter. Azalea had been bullied? How could she have been so absorbed in being friends with Jewel and worrying about Rojo to notice? She was going to say something, do something she'd regret.

For some reason, she found herself at the place where the two groups had been fighting earlier. Despite the soft grey light of evening, there was still signs of the conflict that had taken place - branches had been broken, vines entangled from where birds had gotten trapped and fought to free themselves, to claw at one another. A splatter of blood had dried on a large, wide leaf. She landed on the tree that she'd knocked Felipe into, put a wing on the trunk where he'd landed; the bark crumbled at her touch.

 _What have I done?_ This spun round her head like the moon rotating the earth, over and over. She covered her face, and remained there for time. Adelaide didn't realize she had company until she spoke.

"Are... are you okay?" For the first time ever, Jewel's voice filled her with burning anger. So angry with what had just happened, Adelaide didn't stop to spare Jewel from her torn up emotions.

"Okay? Are you kidding me?" Adelaide turned around, brown eyes dark like the swirling depths of the Amazon river, no longer the soft brown of coconuts. Jewel blinked, before it dawned upon her she'd caught Adelaide at a very, very bad time. She'd been drawn to this place; perhaps Adelaide, or fate. But now she wished she'd never left the ravine.

"Adelaide, you..."

"I just left Felipe." She said, abruptly. Jewel blinked in shock; Adelaide had told her, over and over, how much she loved him. How could she have left him? She remembered how Adelaide had knocked Felipe away from her, and filled with dread as she realized she may something to do with it. Adelaide had been crying, so her split with Felipe couldn't have been clean.

"I'm... I'm sorry -"

"Go away, Jewel." Adelaide said simply, in a dead, emotionless voice.

"But I..."

"Leave me alone! This is your fault!"

"My fault?" Jewel spluttered. Adelaide wasn't thinking straight, but Jewel didn't take this into account. She was defensive instantly, eyes narrowing. "It's not my fault you left your boyfriend!"

"You've distracted me for the past months. While I've been meeting you, my aunt has been in depression, my cousin bullied, and I've driven Felipe away, because I haven't been there for them -"

"Hang on, you made the decision to meet me. You could've turned back, couldn't you? But you didn't, so it's nothing to do with me." Jewel glared at Adelaide. "You just don't want to admit it's your fault! You complain to me about Felipe being too scared to go to Rojo, when you could face him yourself! You're a hypocrite!" Adelaide shook with emotion, knowing Jewel was right, but not wanting to say it. "You put the blame on everyone else and push everyone who cares about you away!" They stared into one another's eyes, air crackling with tension, before Adelaide's filled with defeat and exhaustion.

"I... I don't think we should see each other anymore." Adelaide whispered, and Jewel's anger dissipated.

"Adelaide, what are you talking about? You're my friend..."

"I was." Adelaide retorted. "In fact... I never was." Jewel didn't understand. Desperately, she tried to seize her friend by the wing, but Adelaide tore herself from Jewel's grasp. "Good bye, Jewel." Adelaide was crying as she turned her back on Jewel, but she was too ashamed to turn back and apologize.

"Adelaide!" Jewel cried, but Adelaide was gone, flying into the grey evening. She stared, bewildered, confused, before the full extent of Adelaide's words dawned upon her. Her eyes blinked to show the tears, before she slumped to a sitting position, wings wrapped around her body, as she began to cry.

They wouldn't be the only tears she'd shed tonight.


	25. Insanity

"When will you be back?" Roberto followed Tia, worry churning in his belly. _Will you be back?_ Santiago had returned a little while ago to tell them Rojo accepted their arrangement to meet at the place where leaders met, and before he'd left, the Blue-and-Gold patriarch had had a word of advice to Eduardo about being as civil as possible.

"Depends on how long the talk takes." Mimi said, grimly, from where was sat in the corner.

"... so why are you taking forty reinforcements?" Roberto asked, nervously. Tia paused, and turned round with soft teal eyes. She looked at him in the same way that his own mother used to, when she had been alive.

"It's just in case. Hopefully it won't come to that." Behind the softness however, there was real worry. Tia didn't want bloodshed, but she knew Rojo did. Eduardo didn't want her and Mimi to go with him, but they'd insisted. Naturally Roberto and Jewel had been banned.

"Please let us go with you, I'll be freaking out back here, not knowing what's going on!" Roberto blurted out, not for the first time. Tia stopped pacing, closing her eyes. Mimi got up quickly.

"Out of the question!" She insisted. "It's too dangerous, Roberto."

"Not if we hide in the trees... it'll be as if we aren't even there -"

"Hi." Said a flat voice. Jewel came in, dragging her feet. She'd waited until her eyes had returned to white and her face had dried before coming back, not wanting to be asked if she'd been crying. She'd lost her best friend, and she felt as hollow as her bones. She'd told Adelaide so many things she hadn't even told Roberto, which was saying something. Adelaide was like her, which was why Jewel was drawn to her - she was actually concerned about Rojo and wasn't burying her head in the sand, she knew what it was to have a temper like Jewel, and she was misunderstood by her peers. But that could all be forgotten now. Adelaide never wanted to see her again, and Jewel had never felt so low.

"Are you okay, Jewel?" Tia, immediately, knew something wasn't right.

"I'm fine. I'm just tired." Jewel lied, trying not to burst into tears for the fourth time since dragging herself away from the place Adelaide had left her. "Can I go with you to the meeting?"

"See! Jewel wants to go too!" Roberto exclaimed, neither he nor Mimi picking up on Jewel's sadness. "We'll be fine, if we just hide in the trees! We'll have each other if anything happens, they won't know we're there..."

"A thousand times, no..." Mimi began.

"Well..." Tia broke in. "If it'll give you peace of mind..." Mimi looked at Tia with surprise.

"What?"

"Seriously?" Roberto was surprised as well. Jewel looked at her mother, shocked.

"I'll ask Eduardo. He'll probably say no, but... I'll change his mind. I'd rather know where you are, and not be worrying about you sneaking along anyway."

"Come on, when have we ever done that?" Roberto asked, innocently, and Tia hugged him, before going to Jewel. She crouched to be eye level with her, holding her face with soft, dark blue wings.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She asked, gently. Jewel couldn't bring herself to tell her; but she allowed Tia to pull her into an embrace. Her mother's scent was like rain-soaked jasmine. It was an aroma she'd never forget - Jewel briefly wondered why she'd thought that. In what scenario could she forget something like that? Tia would always be there, and that thought comforted her over her broken friendship.

Across the forest, Felipe had felt his grief melt away to fury within minutes. Not at Adelaide, but at someone he hadn't laid eyes on since the match. _Rojo._ He'd harshly wiped away his tears, and headed back to the kapoks. His face stormy, he flocked from tree to tree, demanding the same question. "Where's Rojo?"

 _"I haven't seen him in days..."_

 _"No... we thought he was holed up with a migraine."_

 _"He's vanished, hasn't he? Even his friends have been scarce..."_

Member after member shook their heads, because Rojo had done a disappearing act. Whenever Felipe had seen the inner circle in the previous days, they'd been in a hurry to get somewhere. He was adamant they'd started the border skirmish, and he was also sure he'd seen Rojo's eyes at some point. He was finally going to confront Rojo and his inner circle cronies. Maybe, if Adelaide heard he'd finally stood up to them, she'd take him back...

"Felipe! Have you seen Adelaide?" Felipe's heart split a little more as he heard her name. Azalea's hazel eyes widened when he turned to face her, and her face creased with worry. "Have you been crying?"

"No! Of course not!" Felipe insisted, suddenly realizing why everyone kept asking him if he was alright. Azalea gave him a searching look, but didn't pressure him, sensing he'd snap if she did. "I haven't seen her. But have you seen Rojo? I have to find him, urgently."

"Well, not him, but... I saw Caesura and Drizelle running off somewhere about two minutes ago, looking... dodgy."

"Where?" He asked, sharply. "Would Anastasiya know where?"

"She doesn't talk to them anymore, so probably not... but I thought I heard Drizelle mention the Dead tree. If you hurry, you might catch them. If anyone would know where he is, it'd be them..."

"It's something! I've got to find him..." He whipped round, desperate to fins Rojo.

"Felipe, what's wrong with you?" Azalea asked, lightly touching his wing with her own. She was warm, and sounded genuinely concerned for him. Like how Adelaide once had. "Have you and Adie been arguing again?"

"It doesn't matter right now. I have to talk to Rojo, I'll see you later." Felipe shook her wing away and hurried for the Dead tree, leaving a confused and concerned Azalea. She looked after him, a look of curiosity on her face, wondering whether to follow.

"Azalea." Said a torn voice, a few minutes later. Azalea turned, and found herself staring in surprise. Tears tumbled down Adelaide's cheeks, her face flooded with distress. "I messed up, Azalie. I messed everything up..."

Meanwhile, Felipe tore through the forest, raking his vision for any sign of Caesura and Drizelle, or better, Rojo. His wing still hurt, but he barely felt the pain. He wanted to kill Rojo - which although he couldn't do - this thought drove him on. Felipe had to confront him and open the floodgates, to let him know what he truly thought of him, which he'd held back for months.

The sun was half-sunk behind the horizon, but Felipe couldn't see it - the sky was smothered by rainless clouds, turning everything blue-grey as the night crept in. It was hot, smothering, the forest as dry as bone, from where it hadn't rained for several weeks. Brown had started to consume some of the green, but the wind was strong. Felipe still pushed on into unfamiliar land. It was part of their territory, close to where all four tribe borders met. This area was rarely explored, because diseased and now dead Walking Palm trees had rendered it brown and ugly. Of course a parasite like Rojo would be hiding there.

The Dead tree was an ancient, long-dead Kapok that, while not particularly tall, was wide with a huge, hollow trunk. It's base was almost as wide as one of those ghastly yellow tree-eating machines that carried humans. It had grown out of control before becoming a corpse. The branches were bare yet thick and wild, forming huge knots and strangling other trees around it. Huge, wooden teeth-filled mouths gaped in the wood, where it had been battered by the elements over the years. Other climbing plants were now possessing it, so the tree bristled with spiky leaves and thorns.

 _The personification of Rojo._

Felipe landed outside, and began climbing up, so he'd be unheard. He heard voices already, all adults he despised. His blood grew hot with rage when he heard Rojo's amung them. He reached a gap in the tree trunk, and crawled in. He was screened from view by a series of old vines and cobwebs. He swatted away a spider in irritance, and blinked down below.

There they were, with Rojo pacing at the front. Felipe was surprised, but not concerned, to see the state of him. Rojo hadn't preened himself in days, his feathers messy with dead leaves caught in them. He was covered in claw marks, and there was another nick out of his beak. What had he been doing? Picking fights in his angered, deranged state?

"So, Santiago dropped by and gave a message to a patrol. Eduardo wants me to meet him, when it gets dark. He's obviously plotting to trap and kill me." _If only,_ Felipe thought. Eduardo would try and talk it out. Trapping and killing was more Rojo's style. In fact, Rojo was planning something, Felipe knew that. If only he'd listened to Adelaide... "So, we'll meet him. But -"

Suddenly a pair of talons sank into Felipe's back. He shrieked as he was brutally shoved through the dead vines, landing in a heap on the floor. Caesura and Drizelle perched where he had been, staring down at him with blazing, panicked eyes. _I got here too fast._ Felipe struggled to his feet, to find the inner circle staring at him, mortified. Then fury erupted.

"You interfering little -" Alfonso began, but his voice was drowned by a series of hisses and insults from the rest. Felipe was backed into a corner, as they swarmed forwards. But then there was a squawk from the back, and the inner circle spun round to face their leader.

"Wait here." Rojo barged to the front, seizing Felipe. "Move, Caesura!" Felipe was in shock as he was yanked along by Rojo, until he was outside; the inner circle were no where to be seen, but Felipe knew they were watching like hawks from the tree. Rojo dropped him, and Felipe landed with a thud, but he leapt up immediately.

"So, this is where you've been hiding since the match!" Rojo was staring at him, horrified. Felipe bristled, realizing something. "It was this lot who attacked the blue macaw patrol, wasn't it? A bit of a coincidence, that the red patrol consisted entirely of your ridiculous 'inner circle'? _Have you lost the plot?"_

"Shut up and listen!" Rojo gripped Felipe by the shoulders, so tightly Felipe tried to struggle free, his beak clenched to stop himself yelping in pain. Rojo's eyes were pale, wild, and they didn't stay still. Like someone who had lost their mind and gone mad. "There isn't much time. I got word Eduardo is luring me to the grove to attack -"

"He isn't, you nit-wit." Felipe said, bluntly. "You and I both know he wouldn't do that. This is a little game you've invented in your head, where you wind him up until he's angry, and you use this as an excuse to launch an attack. I don't need to hear you say the words, it's obvious!"

"You are clever. Perhaps I underestimated you."

"I should've listened to Adelaide. She's right, you have been planning something, but I was too stupid to listen -"

"Oh, that girlfriend of yours. You ought to forget about love, it just makes you weaker."

"Ha!" Felipe shrieked with sarcastic laughter, infuriated further by the reminder of his failed relationship, his love for someone who shut him out. "You're only doing all this because you loved mom! You _hypocrite!_ Or is she just an excuse for you to get back at Eduardo?"

"Don't you see? I'm doing this for her! Those blue fiends killed her!"

"And you're too stupid to realize she probably got sick _before_ she went into their land, or you're using it as an excuse. You don't just go into land healthy and come out and drop dead minutes later!" For the first time in his life, Rojo flinched at Felipe's words.

"She seemed fine to me before she left!"

"On the surface!" Felipe insisted.

"We both lost Perlina, and we need closure!"

"Both? When she was on her deathbed, where were you? I was barely flying for a week, and I had to watch her die!" Felipe finally let it all out, all the secrets that had been locked away since Perlina had gone. He bristled, shrieking in his father's face - Felipe was thrilled by the fear entering Rojo's yellow eyes. "You've _never_ been there for me! You're so self-absorbed and always hidden away plotting your petty revenge schemes, causing a war for no reason! I've never called you 'dad', because I don't know you! You think I don't see who you really are?"

"Felipe -"

"How could mom have ever loved a _parasite_ like you? Love really is blind!"

"Help me with my plan, son, and we can avenge her!" Rojo hadn't taken in a word, his eyes blazing with madness. Felipe broke inside as he realized Rojo had lost his grasp on sanity, that nothing he could say would stop the oncoming mayhem.

"It's not what she would have wanted!" He cried, his blood boiling. Rojo tried once more to bring Felipe to his cause.

"We're the same, you and I, Felipe. You're -"

"I'm _nothing_ like you!" Felipe lost it. He leapt at Rojo with outstretched talons, bowling him over, landing a set of claw marks on Rojo's neck; Rojo was so shocked, he didn't fight back. But then dozens of claws were sinking into Felipe and dragging him off. Felipe was pinned by his wings, by the inner circle. He thrashed and struggled to free himself, screeching at the top of his voice. Rojo staggered to his feet, blood streaming from the wound on his neck. His eyes fixated on Felipe, with not one trace of care. He'd forgotten that Felipe was his son.

"We can't let him warn them! Make sure he doesn't!" Rojo disappeared from view as Felipe was seized by the inner circle, and dragged. "I'm going! Wait for me outside the meeting point, my plan will become clear!"

 _What the heck does that mean?_

"Get off!" Felipe spat, lashing out blindly with his claws, but after several moments, he was suddenly thrown into darkness. Felipe felt around, realizing he was surrounded by walls of soil. Scraps of nest material showed it was once a burrow. He leapt to his feet and spun round, seeing the moon roll across the sun. Suddenly, he was eclipsed in blackness.

"You need some time out!" Caesura shouted with glee, through the rock that had been put across the entrance. Felipe blindly threw himself at the stone, shoving against it with all his strength. But it was too heavy for him to move. Panic surged through him; he could barely see his wings in front of his face.

"Hey! Let me out of here!" He screamed, hammering on the rock. "I'll _kill you_ , Rojo!" There was no-one to hear his shrieks. Felipe continued to fling himself against the rock face, until his wings were bruised, his throat raw from shouting. "Somebody, help me! Get me out of here, let me out!"

But there was nobody.


	26. Opened gates of hell

_Far out of hearing range, strange noises came from the trees. Like grinding teeth, the clash of metal upon metal; the sound of flailing branches whipping the air as they came crashing down. Portuguese was being shouted in the dark, harsh torchlight piercing through the trees. "Let's wrap it up! We'll finish tomorrow, its too dark now. Light a fire, will you?" The machines fell silent, and the men slunk away into the trees, leaving the yellow tree harvesters, the engines still warm, in a clearing._

 _The reek of petrol lingered through the forest around, where it had leaked in a continuous trail, all around the area. It continued to drip, a continuous, growing puddle forming under the machinery. A rat sniffed at it in curiosity, before letting out a high-pitched sqeaul of disgust and dashing away into the ferns. The fire grew larger and hotter, and the wind was starting to pick up. Nervous creatures observed from still-standing trees, not understanding, unsure and terrified that their nest would be next to join the morgue of trees._

 _Men huddled around the fire, with bottles swinging from their hands. A sorry looking tent propped in the trees, made of cheap material and poorly put together. Some trees were lashed to a machine by a chain, the wood ragged and cut without much skill. They didn't notice, but a creature come crawling through the ferns, seizing the end of a stick that jabbed into the fire. It raced away like a rat, the flaming stick hanging as far away from him as possible. So far, that as he flew, sparks fell, and leaves caught the flame as it raced past. That was twenty minutes before the wind tore a branch free and sent it flailing towards the men._

 _They leapt up and shrieked as it crashed into the fire, sending burning twigs flying. The vegetation flared to life. "Put it out! Put it out!" Swear words and curses filled the space, and chaos ensured as they rushed to stamp out the flames, throwing water onto it. "You idiot! That's not water -" one of the bottles of vile-smelling liquid landed, and the flames rose up like a tsunami wave, hissing and spitting fiercely. The fire raced across the ferns, which were dry as bone from the recent hot weather._

"I'm sorry you have to see me like this." In the kapoks, Adelaide pressed moss to her eyes. Azalea had a wing draped around her cousin, Juliana outside, because she wasn't good at this sort of thing. Azalea had been shocked to hear that Adelaide had left Felipe; they had their problems, but breaking up? A month ago that seemed unimaginable, and recently unlikely, despite their arguments, they'd always gone back to one another.

It didn't seem like the only thing she was upset about, but she had insisted that was all. Adelaide was feeling guilty and alone after what she'd said to Jewel.

"Hey, don't you worry. " Azalea held her more tightly. "Cry all you like."

"I'm alright..." Adelaide wiped away some fresh tears. "I don't know why I broke up with him... I do love him, I love him so much, why did I say something so horrible?"

"You were just stressed and angry... we all say things we don't really mean when we're like that! He'll forgive you."

"It doesn't fix anything. He's right. I've been a useless cousin to you... how didn't I notice you were being bullied?"

"Ssh. Don't worry, I didn't exactly make it obvious." Azalea was distraught. Adelaide felt so guilty, over something she and Juliana didn't really mind - they'd managed through their grief, they'd known Adelaide had her mind on other things. Felipe had just said that out of anger and impulsiveness. "We never thought badly of you, so stop worrying." Adelaide exhaled and prized her wings away from her face.

"I'm okay now. I'm sorry." She managed a weak smile, but before Azalea could speak, there was a suddenly a great upwelling of noise from outside; shrieks of panic.

"What's going on?" Azalea got up, and Adelaide glanced up, blinking away some tears. Juliana suddenly burst through the hollow.

"We need to leave! Right now!"

"What? Why?" Adelaide got to her feet. Juliana was scaring her; her blue eyes were wild with fear, and the shrieking outside wasn't making it better.

"Caesura just said there's a fire nearby! Come _on!"_ Juliana seized both Adelaide and Azalea, and pulled them out of the hollow. The trees were alive with red, as birds poured from the kapoks. Adelaide stared at the mayhem, of birds frenzied with fear.

"You know the drill! To the river!" Shouted someone. Adelaide looked around, scanning the horizon - then her breath caught. In the distance, a brown cloud was swelling against the starless night sky. Just below that, an orange glow in the black of the trees. It was true. And to her horror, the glow was wide, stretching a great distance. The wind would carry it their way, and the forest was dry as a bone. It would ignite like a pool of oil.

Juliana was pulling them with her, but then her grasp was lost in the frenzy. She raced ahead of them, sure that they were following, when they weren't, because Adelaide had seized Azalea by the wing. "Felipe." Adelaide said. Azalea suddenly filled with an unspeakable terror, remembering where he'd gone in pursuit of Rojo.

"He went after Rojo! After Caesura - Adelaide!" Her cousin went flying through the crowd, towards the sound of Caesura's voice. Azalea followed, heart racing. Eventually they found her, shouting at anyone she saw to go. There was a panic and wildness about her, as if with guilt. "Caesura!" Azalea called, not calling her Tremaine for once, and Caesura spun round. But then she saw Adelaide, and her eyes filled with horror as she remembered.

"Felipe!" her beak snapped shut, but she had spoken. Adelaide seized Caesura with unforgiving talons, and the older female yelped with pain.

"Where is he, Caesura?" Caesura stared dumbly at Adelaide, not wanting to say it. Adelaide screamed in her face, eyes blazing. " _Caesura! Where is he?"_

"Next to the Dead Tree -" Adelaide released Caesura, and she and Azalea went racing in the opposite direction of the river, knowing Felipe was right in the fire's path.

Not far away, unaware of the danger, blue macaws waited for Rojo to arrive.

"Stay here, and you'll be fine." Tia held Jewel's wings, in a tree that overlooked the meeting place, the four rocks. Only two would be occupied today. "This shouldn't take too long." Jewel nervously eyed the movements below, of the forty-odd birds hidden. Jewel spotted Stella and Stanley holding wings, and even Sophia's mother Zenaida, who usually rarely got involved with fights. Sophia and Jewel's other friends were back in the ravine; Jewel had made an oddly long hug with all of them before leaving, as if she'd never see them again.

"Alright. But... what is that horrible..." a sharp, bitter scent was in the air, like the scent that came off the tourist boats that sometimes lingered. Roberto had smelt it before, and it unsettled him. He'd grown up 'close to' humans - that was all he could bare to say about it - and it had been hanging around the cars that that had driven past him. It was what the machines drank, he'd observed. Did that mean one of them had been here? The undergrowth did look crushed...

"I don't know, but it's weird." Mimi remarked. "It's familiar..."

"I'm sure it's nothing." Tia said. She swept a wing around Jewel's face, teal eyes warm despite the fear. "I'll see you soon."

"Bye, mom." Jewel caught rain-soaked jasmine in Tia's feathers before she pulled away, and flew down with Mimi. She realized Eduardo was still there.

"Behave yourselves, and don't leave this tree if it kicks off. Stay hidden!"

"Some things never change, dad."

"I'm sorry if I've been... hard on you lately." Eduardo pulled her briefly under his wing. "But it's only because I love you."

"I know." Jewel nodded, throat suddenly feeling tight with emotion. "I'll see you after." Eduardo nodded back, before releasing Jewel and flying down to join Tia and Mimi. Jewel pressed against Roberto, waiting for Rojo to arrive.

"This is terrifying." She whispered to him.

"It'll be alright." Roberto replied; but Jewel could feel him shaking with trepidation. They waited.

"He's so late. I don't like this." Eduardo stood on the rock, growing more and more angry by the minute. Tia held his wing tight, her body stiff, her heart thudding unusually fast. They'd been here for twenty minutes. The sky was moonless, the stars invisible, clouds smothering them from view. It was dark; she couldn't see their forty-odd reinforcements, even though they were close. She kept catching the acrid smell of something unnatural.

"Is he going to turn up?" Mimi was slowly sounding less impatient and more afraid. It wasn't like Rojo to be late. The atmosphere crackled horribly with tension. Everyone hidden in the trees was muttering in suspense, unsettled. Jewel's heart thrashed against her ribcage, like an animal in a trap. She was clinging to Roberto, so much so his wing was turning numb, but he didn't feel it.

"Something's wrong." Roberto whispered, but Jewel barely heard him over her breathing. It felt so wrong. Her skin crawled, her feathers were on end. It was almost of though some evil spirit was lurking about, watching them, waiting for... something, to happen.

Eduardo was looking around anxiously, his feathers bristling. But then there was a movement, and all attention snapped to it. Rojo came into view, a mad glint in his yellow eyes. A group of red macaws fanned out behind him, but there was an uncertainty to some of them; Rojo had said nothing about his 'plan'. He hadn't said a word when they'd asked what he'd done. Now, some of the outsiders of the group were worried, although they were still going with it. But Rojo was erratic.

"You're late." Eduardo snapped.

"Am I? Oh dear..." Rojo was twitching oddly, as though feeling the prolonged sting of nettles. He was looking around, as though waiting and watching for something. "Why was I here, again?" Tia stared at him. She looked at Eduardo, and then at Mimi.

Suddenly Tia was deathly afraid. Her heart raced as though it would never beat again.

"He's... he looks..." suddenly, Rojo released a shriek, a signal. Most of the inner circle went crashing forwards, talons outstretched, at the opposite rock that Eduardo, Tia and Mimi stood on.

 _"No!"_ Jewel cried out, but then the hidden blue macaws came rushing out of the trees to meet the inner circle. They immediately stopped and shrieked in protest, hopelessly outnumbered, but they disappeared into a sea of blue. Jewel saw Eduardo disappear into the grass, Rojo clinging to him. "Dad!" She shrieked, but it got worse. Mimi tried to follow her brother, but a female intercepted her with a slash to her wing. Tia threw herself at the assailant and the two females fought viciously, shrieking. Blue feathers flew, Tia's midnight blue feathers. _"Mom!"_ Before she could stop herself, Jewel had raced down, Roberto on her tail.

If they hadn't been surrounded by so much noise, so absorbed in the fight, perhaps they'd have seen the orange glow through the trees, and heard the cries of panicked animals. A drop of fire fell onto the trail of petrol that meandered through the forest. It caught fire immediately, and tore through the undergrowth in a heartbeat, closing the distance between the source and the grove in seconds.

Roberto was the only one to see it, springing out of hiding like a snake. Fire, racing down a petrol track, towards one of its sources. Roberto saw a familiar red canister, which he'd once seen in Manaus. He'd spent enough time there to know what fire would do to it.

 _"Wait!"_ He screamed, before an explosion ripped through the clearing.


	27. A fateful choice

_**I'll warn you, the next few chapters could be quite graphic... so, I apologize in advance if I offend anyone.**_

Cinders fell like hail, writhing wildly like drowning animals, red, glowing, tinged in black. Everytime they twirled to earth, the blades of grass and ferns they landed upon started to smoke and glow. The grass moved slightly as Jewel slowly sat up, before crying out in pain as she realized she was burnt. A red splotch, mercifully just two inches in diameter, on the wing facing the source of the blast. She lay there on her back, unable to rise in the pain, the shock she felt.

Ears ringing, thrown a distance away from everyone else, Jewel couldn't hear the mayhem. Cries of agony, pleas for help, wails of horror, as bodies lay in the grass. Partially broken birds stumbled blindly, picking themselves up from the ferns, where they wandered about in their shock like lost chicks. Then the names started being shrieked by loved ones. Stanley cried out that he couldn't find Stella, Rana shouted for her brother. The inner circle were littered about; a Green-Winged macaw was screaming that he couldn't see, his wings covering his bloodied face from view.

Sophia's mother Zenaida was spluttering on fume-filled smoke - the smoke was like sea fog, thick, smothering, poisoned with the smell of chemicals. Shaking, Mimi lay on the ground, blood streaming from a cut above her eyes. A shard of wood stuck in her wing, but she failed to notice. She didn't rise, but lay there, staring at the flames. Unseen, unexpected, so horrific to even comprehend, words struggled to form.

"A... a..." She was in shock. Mimi couldn't process what had just happened, and she wasn't the only one. Uninjured and conscious birds lay, eyes fixated on the burning trees, paralysed with shock and terror. The reek of human petrol was everywhere, and some birds had it in their feathers. Mimi, still paralysed, vaguely wondered if someone was on fire - a red fireball floundered through the grass, screaming for water, on the other side of the clearing.

A few of those red and blue shapes lying in the grass did not move. Alfonso, from Rojo's inner circle, lay horrendously burned, eyes still and blank. He had been closest to the blast. Twilla, who had played for the Spix's pit of doom team, showed no signs of breathing. But those who weren't unconscious or in shock were instead making their panic clear. Drizelle's broken wing hung like a door on it's hinge, and she began to wail for Caesura. Freya was shrieking in hysteria, a toe missing from her left foot, as her sister Ravenna tried to calm her. Birds cried out for help, for themselves, for their unmoving tribemates.

Forcing herself to move, Mimi didn't immediately go to help them. Instead she stumbled through the grass deliriously, to where she'd seen Eduardo and Rojo fall. Eventually, she saw Eduardo, motionless, laying on his side. He was covered in blood, both his own and Rojo's; Rojo himself was no where to be seen, having been thrown away by the explosion. She shook her brother, desperately calling his name. Finally, he muttered.

"Jewel... Tia..." It was then that Mimi realized with horror she couldn't see either of them, or Roberto. She looked at the wall of flame consuming the trees, saw the glow intensifying in most of the clearing edges, and heard the petrified screams of over forty macaws. Tia, Jewel and Roberto's voices weren't in the mix.

Jewel staggered to her feet, swaying, her head, her body shrieking with protest. She looked up, cowering, feeling the blazing heat on her face. Her wing covered her beak, as she slowly backed away from the wall of flame. Before she could identify Mimi and Eduardo's voices calling her, a shadow eclipsed her, and she went rigid. A voice spoke with sinister intent - she barely heard the words, but she knew she was in danger.

Jewel turned slowly, head turned down, before she lifted her face. The flames flared behind Rojo's silohuette, and tear fell down her face as she realized who it was. Jewel stumbled backwards as he swarmed forwards. She had no choice but to flee through the ferns, the burning ones, as Rojo came after her like a storm surge. Nobody saw them, and she didn't see her tribe, through the flames.

Not far away, Adelaide and Azalea flew close to the ground, under the smoke, but they were already coughing. The start of the diseased walking palm trees had been shrouded in smoke, but now cinders were flying their way, and the flames racing into view. The diseased and dead trees were brown and dry - as soon as the flames brushed them, they exploded to life, crackling, snapping, blazing amber. Heat crashed over them like a wave, the wind whipping, making those living branches shake.

Azalea didn't go in, frozen with fear. "I, I can't..." her hazel eyes were flooded with fear as she realized the danger was real.

"We have to! It's not far! I can see it!" A big, dark silhouette that had somehow not caught fire yet, was their guide. "If he's trapped, I won't be able to get him out on my own. Please, Azalea!"

Felipe lay on the floor just by the single crack of air, which was flooded with smoke. His eyes streamed, because of the heat, smoke, his tears. His screams had dwindled, and now he was coughing his throat raw, choking, as breathable air was smothered by smoke. He had seen the flames through the miniscule gap not long ago, and he was starting to give up. He just wanted death to come, gather him in it's black wings, and take him away from his misery forever. He thought of Adelaide, his beloved Adelaide... this would be a comfortable thought to die with.

 _At least I can be with my mother again._

He imagined Adelaide calling his name, when she noticed him missing. Would she be devastated? She said she didn't love him, but he still heard her voice.

"Felipe!" It sounded so close, so real... it broke through his delirium, in fact. His head lifted slightly, before he realized she _was_ calling him. Her, and Azalea. Were they real? Stiff, struggling, Felipe dragged himself up to look through the gap. Two figures by the Dead Tree. He blinked several times, bit his wing brutally hard, to ensure he wasn't dreaming. But it was real. Suddenly, his urge for survival came back with a vengeance. Coughing, desperate, Felipe screamed despite his torn throat.

" _Adelaide_!" He shrieked. " _Azalea_!" His shrieks were heard over the roar of fire. The cousins whipped round, looking for the source, before they saw a pile of debris pushed against a slab of rock in a mound of earth. Red feathers littered the ground, from where Felipe had put up a struggle. Adelaide raced over, pulling debris aside, pressing her ear to the rock.

"Felipe?"

"Get me out of here!" His terrified voice pleaded through it.

"Azalea, help me!" Adelaide rushed to the side of the rock, shoving against it, and Azalea hurried to help. On the other side, Felipe pushed as well, and with their combined strength, the rock slid away from the burrow entrance. Felipe collapsed as he stumbled through the gap, onto the earth, where he lay, coughing and gasping for air. Azalea helped Adelaide pull him off the floor, where Felipe clung to them, trying to breathe, but the smoke was still thick.

"Adelaide..." It felt as though every argument they'd had over the past weeks hadn't happened, their hate and hurt dissolving with their embrace. Adelaide held him, feeling a different kind of love flowing through her. This would be a moment Felipe would remember forever, as though it would be their last. But then Adelaide recalled their surroundings.

"We need to get out of here!" She pulled Felipe to his feet, clinging to him as she looked up, at the flaming ceiling, and then at the Dead Tree, which had finally started to ignite. The fire raced down the trunk, igniting the thorns, the strangling climbing plants. A series of flaming debris came flying their way, and Felipe pulled Adelaide with him, starting to fly, following Azalea who raced ahead.

The wind was brutal, threatening to send them flying into the path of flame. The trees waved and shook with fire, the heat burning from all angles, the smoke blurring out the sky. The noise was unbearable - hissing, spitting, just like the snake that had killed Juanita, like the one Jewel had saved Adelaide from - before Adelaide could remember her friend, something caught her attention. Just ahead and above of Azalea, a fire blackened branch broke free, and came crashing towards her.

"Azalea, look out!" She shrieked. Azalea spun round in alarm, not seeing the branch flying towards her. Her screech was abruptly cut off as it struck her, and to Adelaide's horror, Azalea began plunging towards the forest floor. But Felipe had swooped down and caught her before she could hit the ground hard. Adelaide rushed down, heart lurching when she realized Azalea wasn't moving, a stream of blood coming down from a cut on her head. "Azalea! Is she okay?"

"She's just unconscious!" Felipe said, in a smoke-torn voice, as he held Azalea. Adelaide was relieved to see he was right, because she was breathing. "I'll take her." With Azalea hanging from his talons, Adelaide jumped back to give Felipe the space to fly. With difficulty, for he was still recovering from lack of air, Felipe carried Azalea with Adelaide following.

They stayed close as they escaped the diseased walking palms, but the fire had expanded since then. They flew through the fire, unable to escape over the trees for the canopy was on fire. They fled for the river, but their path was suddenly consumed by flames. Felipe and Adelaide leapt back, as the fire flared forwards. Ashes flew their way, glowing amber, red.

"This way!" Adelaide made a turn, leading the way through a part of the forest that wasn't yet burning hellfire. But the smoke was still thick, meaning they barely saw where they were going, but Adelaide knew from a certain tree that the evacuation point wasn't far. Through the trees, another part of the blaze approached; Adelaide heard screams from within them, and her heart plunged into ice. "Felipe..."

"Where's the river?" Felipe hadn't heard the screams for he was weakening, slowing down with exhaustion. Adelaide, coughing, pointed the way.

"That way! It's straight on, through the smoke... go, take her!" Felipe went through the smoke screen, spluttering as he did, but Adelaide didn't follow. She was being pulled away by some unknown force, towards the screaming. But then she realized: those weren't just anyone's screams. They were _Jewel's._

For a moment, Adelaide hesitated. She could easily follow Felipe now to safety. Tend to Azalea next to the river, relieve Juliana of her frantic worry, and mend her and Felipe's relationship. She'd be safe, far from the flames.

Adelaide made a choice.


	28. Inferno

Jewel bursted into a grove she didn't recognize; but it looked vaguely familiar. She didn't know what one it was because it was on fire. The trees burned, and where flames didn't possessed them, the trunks were charred black. The foliage on the ground had been burned away, leaving stabbing stalks of burnt grass that was still warm underfoot.

Jewel lost energy. Her wings collapsed inwards, and she ended up tumbling to the floor. Through the sharp grass she went, until she came to a stop. Jewel gasped, laying limp in the earth. She tried to breathe, but the scent of smoke and petrol was everywhere, invading her lungs, strangling her on the inside. Jewel rolled onto her front, slowly pushing herself off the ground with shuddering wings. Her head hung like a broken doll's, as she coughed over and over.

Rojo landed clumsily a few feet away, staggering as though intoxicated. He clung to a branch to support himself, spluttering on smoke, but then his yellow gaze fixed on her, consumed with madness. Jewel forced herself to her feet, determined to hide her weakness.

"Why couldn't you just leave us alone?" Jewel spat. She seized a branch off the floor, and swiped it towards Rojo, but he dodged. Regardless, she still tried, even when he caught it in his talon. Jewel tried to free her weapon, but being burnt, it shattered at too much pressure. Rojo lunged, and she screamed at him, losing her her mind for a brief moment. _"Go away!"_

"You think I'd let your wretched family get away with all they've done to me?"

"We did nothing!" Jewel shrieked, trying to see another branch, some sort of weapon she could use. She came up to Rojo's shoulders and was probably less than a third of the weight. It was hopeless thinking she could attack him without killing herself, and she was too exhausted to fly. Not that she could fly anyway - the burn on her wing caused searing pain and the smoke meant she wouldn't be able to see where she was going.

"Nothing? Your family poisoned my mate! Your mother was all over her, infecting her!"

"You're crazy! Don't you think if my mom had had it, she'd be dead by now?" Jewel leapt upwards onto a higher branch as Rojo lunged. He crashed into the pile of debris, which showered onto him in fragments and splinters. Jewel, weak, could barely perch straight. She was oddly delirious, but it wasn't just because she was exhausted. It was as if she was in some sort of translucent dream, that she'd always be haunted by, and that she couldn't escape."I don't understand! We were perfectly happy with leaving you alone. Why couldn't you do the same?" Rojo looked up, eyes stinging from smoke.

"Your father warped my mind. Because of him I suffer with pain, and almost every day, I have to shut myself in the dark to make it stop. Before he struck my head, I didn't even think of committing this crime." Crime? A fire wasn't, unless someone started it. Jewel forgot that phrase, not realizing it meant something. "And your mother killed my mate."

"She was Perlina's friend!" Jewel snapped. "She didn't infect her. I suppose Perlina had a lucky escape, though! Who would put up with a _creature_ like you?"

Rojo's eyes reflected the flames, making his fury all the more clear. The yellow seemed to have turned red, more like evil, rather than the reflection of fire. But then he leapt at Jewel, taking her completely by surprise. They went crashing down a fallen tree trunk, which had broken from the stump and fallen down, coming to rest on a downward slope, meaning they tumbled. It was black and charred, and scratched them both. They were stopped from falling into a pool of flame by some tree branches. Jewel clung to her branch, rigid, realizing that had it not been there, she'd have gone falling into the fire.

But it was here Rojo snagged his claws into her and refused to let go.

"Eduardo needs to know what it feels like, to lose someone he loves!" He tried to strike her with his other free talon, but Jewel managed to stay just out of reach, dodging by centimetres, his claw still attached to her wing. She screamed at him to let go, a trail of blood slowly making its way down her wing. It wouldn't be long before his talons struck something important, like an artery.

Suddenly, a red comet streaked from the corner of her eye, and Rojo was torn away from her. He fell to a lower branch, managing to snag himself before he fell into the flames; but he screamed briefly, for part of it had been on fire. Jewel struggled blindly as she was dragged backwards a few moments later, an unseen pair of wings hauling her up the fallen tree trunk, back to the tree stump and then to the ground. Jewel leapt to her feet and spun round, not knowing what to expect. Instead she was in for a shock.

"Adelaide?" Her friend who she thought she'd never see again, was standing there with fearful brown eyes and sooty feathers. For a moment Jewel was confused, but then it dawned upon her. Adelaide had saved _her. She came back._ For a moment Jewel stared, unsure how to react, but then she forgot everything - the argument, the mistrust and all the stress - and hugged her friend. Adelaide threw her own wings around Jewel. This union between red and blue was only for a heartbeat, as a showering of ash reminded them of where they were. "Adelaide, I -"

"Tell me later. Let's get out of here!" Adelaide pulled her wing and Jewel staggered after her, but then there was a loud crack behind them. They spun round, realizing to their horror that Rojo wasn't still trapped. He'd hauled his way up the fallen tree, despite the huge angle and steepness, and now he stood where Jewel had, bleeding more than ever. His feathers were singed and blackened, his beak whitened by so many new cracks and chippings they both thought it was a few hits from shattering into fragments and ceasing to exist.

Now Jewel and Adelaide saw him completely. A large burn splashed across his throat and chest, red and raw, feathers torn out, his face savaged by Jewel's clawing of self defence. He was mutilated, and if he survived, he'd be that way forever. The scarring would never fade, the injuries too deep. His exterior finally - entirely - matched the true monster within, a monster nurtured by grief, madness, and the inability to let go. His speech was no different from how he normally spoke, except it was more sinister than ever.

"I knew there was something off about you! Traitor!" Rojo gave Adelaide a look of pure poison, seeing her wing on Jewel's. Adelaide tightened her grasp, and spoke bravely.

"You're no leader to me! I'm going to go, and tell them what a piece of work you really are!" Adelaide had to cough at the end of that sentence, the smoke infecting her lungs. But there was no where they could go. It was just Adelaide and Jewel, trapped in a circle of flame through which there was no path. Smoke and a flaming tree canopy above, the fire climbing so high it closed them inside the inferno. Cinders fell like an endless rain, burning them every few moments, but they barely felt the pain.

"You've got no where to go, though. Have you?" Rojo said it with malice and mockery. Adelaide looked at Jewel, stricken and full of fear.

 _"What do we do?"_

Felipe finally escaped the smoke, his lungs twisted like a fish in netting. He could hardly breathe, but it was over. A swarm of red was there on the river banks where the lilypads were, but his relief sank. Some were laying on the ground, others crying. He saw only Caesura and Drizelle, the later crying as Anastasiya, despite their estrangement, tried to fix her broken wing. The rest of the inner circle was no where to be seen.

He scanned the crowd, searching for those he knew. His heart filled with relief when he saw Ricardo, Lena and Miguel, as well as Tambo and Delilah. But he didn't see Blanche and Mitch, and he realized that the crowd was a bit smaller than it would normally be in their drills.

The noise grew as the tribe saw him coming, saw the body he carried. Birds were sent flying as Juliana came crashing through the crowd, knowing who it was. She was screaming in hysterical worry as she couldn't tell whether Azalea was alive or dead. "She's fine!" Felipe insisted, passing Azalea's unconscious form over to her mother. He swatted away Maite and Miguel, who were helping treat the injured, and tried to catch his breath.

Juliana held Azalea in her wings, any sign of distance and coldness from when Azalea was a chick, gone. Juliana wept in relief, trying to rouse Azalea. Between, she looked up at Felipe. She thanked him over and over, and eventually Azalea stirred, twitching in Juliana's grasp. As Azalea started to wake, Juliana looked expectantly behind Felipe. But then her relief sank. A look entered her eyes, the prayer that this was just a nightmare.

"Where's my niece?" Her voice was high, like a twig about to snap. Felipe turned, thinking she'd be there. But then he went cold. She wasn't. He looked around, knowing she wouldn't be in the crowd - she'd be with Azalea and Juliana. Where was Adelaide? The last he'd seen her brown eyes, they'd been amber with the reflection of the flames. "Adie?" Juliana choked behind him.

"She was right behind me. She... she was right behind me. I swear..." He said it over and over, as though in shock. He stared into the smoke, knowing in his heart, there was no where else she could be. She was there. Adelaide was in the fire, right now, with nobody with her. There was no question of what he was going to do.

"Felipe! What are you doing? Come back!" Birds shouted in frenzy, not understanding. _"Come back!"_ But they were ignored. Felipe disappeared back into the smoke screen, which was no longer brown, but red, as the flames reached the edge of the forest. The red tribe cowered in horror, without a leader, too terrified to move, as the sky began to bleed scarlet.


	29. The blue, blue sea

Nobody knew what was going on, so far away from the explosion. As Eduardo stumbled through his fallen tribemates, searching for Tia, Jewel, and Roberto, he had no idea he was looking in the wrong place. While Jewel and Adelaide were fighting for life, Tia and Roberto had been thrown by the explosion through the trees, for they had been on the edge of it when it happened. They lay a distance apart.

A heap of ferns and branches shifted slightly, rising and falling as though it were breathing, as someone tried to push away the debris crushing them, but lost strength and let it sink back down several times. Twigs showered off the pile and branches heaved, but eventually a bedraggled form pulled itself free, covered in dust and ash. Tia pushed the final branch off her, gasping as she did. Eyes streaming, ears ringing, she took a moment to come to her senses.

She took in her surroundings, deliriously wondering how the forest had ignited so quickly. The petrol was probably why. Tia staggered to her feet, teal eyes round with her horror, as she took in a wall of flaming trees. She heard distant wailing; she recognized the voices of her tribemates, of Eduardo and Mimi. Screaming, for her, Roberto, and Jewel. _Jewel!_ She'd heard her daughter scream for her, but a few moments later, Roberto had shrieked. Naturally, Tia initially ran forwards, headed back to the clearing to search for Jewel. But then there was a weak cry of pain from behind her.

Tia spun round, seeing something half-sticking out of a pile of heavy looking branches. Her heart twisted. "Roberto!"

"Tia!" He wailed, sounding like a chick. Tia ran over to him, hearing his cries of pain, which made her run all the more faster. She reached his side, mortified to see a burn on his face, from where he was half-buried in debris. She frantically started trying to loosen the branches trapping him, and when she thought he could be moved, she grabbed his wings.

"It's okay, hang onto me -" Tia flinched when Roberto released another cry of pain, as she freed him. He was covered in scratches, and laying there he'd been burned slightly by charred branches. He was covered in ash, his blue feathers now grey, tears carving blue rivers through the greyness. Tia dusted some of the ash off his face, before hugging him, because he was as much a son to her as Jewel was her daughter.

"The humans did it - I saw the red canister, it exploded!" Roberto was traumatized. He'd had bad experiences with them before, but this had put the nail in the coffin. He was saying the five letter word, over and over, terrified of the thought of them. Tia clung onto him, trying to calm him.

"Ssh! Calm down! I'm here, I'm here!" Tia forced him to look into her eyes to reassure him, and eventually his stammering stopped, because her teal eyes reminded him of his own mother's, when she'd been alive. "You okay now?" Roberto nodded silently. "Alright." Tia didn't let go of him, wing clasped to the back of his head, as she stared up at the flaming ceiling, face filled with disbelief.

 _How did this happen?_

"Tia!" Shouted a distant voice.

"Mimi!" She yelled back, to show where they were. A few moments later, Mimi and Eduardo came crashing through the ferns, running to Tia and Roberto.

"I thought you were gone." Eduardo said, hoarsely.

"Never." Tia kissed him briefly, before remembering what had sparked panic into her. "Where's Jewel?" She asked. Mimi and Eduardo went cold; they'd been unable to find Jewel in the clearing. Roberto, under his feathers, went pale as the blood drained from his face. Tia went white. "We have to find her."

"I'm sure she isn't far!" But Mimi's voice was high with distress. She didn't believe that.

"We'll fan out and find her. She must be nearby!" Eduardo held tight onto Tia's wing. But Tia was starting to panic. Her heart raced, her body shaking.

"I'll help -"

"You're not going anywhere!" Eduardo snapped at Roberto. "Get back to the ravine, it's too dangerous!"

"I'm not leaving without Jewel!" Roberto insisted, but then Zenaida and Freya came through the ferns, Freya less hysterical over her missing talon, but her eyes were glossed with shock. Neither could stay and help, for Freya seemed to be in shock, and Zenaida already had sensitive lungs and couldn't be too exposed to smoke. She was spluttering already.

"Zenaida, Freya! Roberto's going back with you!"

"But -" Roberto tried to protest, but Tia seized him.

"I can't lose you too." She whispered, and Roberto couldn't worry her anymore. He felt numb as Mimi ushered him over to Zenaida and Freya.

"Go on!" Mimi said, in a fragile voice, to Roberto. Tia's wing slipped from Eduardo's grasp, as they and Mimi went to search for Jewel.

While this was happening, Adelaide and Jewel leapt apart as Rojo came flailing at them like a battering ram. He'd clearly lost his mind, there was no negotiating. They had no other choice. They'd have to fight their way out - there was no escape right now, but they couldn't just stand there and wait for a path through the flames.

"The moment there's a clear path, we run for it!" Jewel managed to gasp, as she and Adelaide tried to evade Rojo and stick together.

"When do we -" Adelaide replied, before Jewel spun round and launched herself at Rojo. Rojo was surprised, and skidded to a halt, but this gave Jewel the upper hand. She didn't hesitate, driven by the anger and the fear, it was all a blur. Adelaide joined in, swiping her talon to strike Rojo on the cheek, so hard he staggered from the impact. She felt such satisfaction, after hating him for so long, after all he'd said and done to her.

But it was as if Rojo had unlimited energy. He looked such a state, but he continued to put up a fight, not seeming to weaken or slow down. Despite his bedraggled appearance, he was brutally strong. "This is tragic! The pair of you, what will you do? Kill me?" He asked, mockingly.

"We're not like you." Jewel spat. "We won't go that far -" suddenly there was a flash out of the corner of her eye; a split in the flame. "Adelaide! Go!" Adelaide blindly followed Jewel, her eyes stinging with the heat, as they ran through the gap. Jewel looked over her shoulder, realizing with terror that Rojo was following. She and Adelaide flew close to the forest floor, keeping under the smoke, as they tried to evade him.

A branch fell, and Rojo screeched as he was struck, falling briefly to the floor. This bought Jewel and Adelaide some time, as they raced ahead. But Jewel was exhausted. She was slowing, her flying clumsy - when a piece of branch came flying her way she was too slow to avoid it. She was struck and fell down, tumbling head over tail, until she came to a painful halt.

"Jewel!" Adelaide landed beside her, trying to drag her to her feet, but Jewel was weak. "Come on, we need to keep going!"

"Get yourself out, Adelaide. Just leave me..." Jewel was ready to pass out, but Adelaide shook her.

"No. You're my friend, I'm not going to leave you here with him!" Adelaide lifted Jewel's ash-covered face, looking at her with determined brown eyes. "I was thoughtless and emotional, and I didn't spare your feelings. I owe you." The moment shattered, when Rojo recovered and came charging through the smoke. Adelaide stood between him and Jewel, a fierce look in her eyes that made Rojo skid to a halt.

"You've always been a problem. From the beginning, I hated you hanging around my son! You -" Rojo swayed; Adelaide was sure that within a few minutes he would collapse, by the state of him. She had no sympathy.

"You need to shut up, right now!" Adelaide had never been so angry, bristling so much she almost equalled Rojo in size. She screamed at Rojo, her fury like the fire. "Don't use Felipe as an excuse. You never cared about him - you practically buried him alive!" Jewel struggled to her feet behind Adelaide, in an attempt to offer support.

Something strange was happening. Jewel's, and Adelaide's, hearts were racing dangerously fast. As if something were going to happen. But Adelaide had never felt more alive. Her blood pounded in her ears, and somehow she felt immune to the smoke. Rojo breathed heavily, his movements erratic.

"Why do you care? He seemed like a state! You've been arguing for weeks!"

"I love him. Just... not like that." Adelaide had realized a little while ago it wasn't romantic love she felt now. It was more like that of a dear friend. "But I loved him in a way you never knew. You'd understand if you loved Perlina enough to put her over your petty revenge plans! If it weren't for the human stuff I passed on my way here, I'd have thought you'd started this fire!" Rojo's eyes darkened at the mention of Perlina and this last statement.

"Don't you speak her name."

Adelaide was delirious and unthinking. She laughed hysterically at the hypocrisy, despite their ever dangerous surroundings. Cinders whirled around them, driven by the strong wind, and the trees were hissing as the fire burned through their trunks. "You criticized Felipe for loving me, yet you say something like that? You really are a hypocrite! And why do you always seem to make arrogant and preposterous speeches?" While Adelaide and Rojo were spitting insults, Jewel was thinking about everything Rojo had done.

"You make me sick." Jewel whispered, and Adelaide paused to look at Jewel. Jewel shook slightly, and Rojo glared at her. "Look around you. You're the reason we're here. My tribe is in danger and so is yours, because you wanted to drag us out here... if you hadn't, we'd be in our ravine away from danger, you'd be in your kapoks, and not trapped in the _midst of the fire!_ We would have had a chance to avoid it!" Jewel's voice grew thick. "Was it really worth it, Rojo? What you've done to my tribe, for these past months?" Adelaide saw Rojo's muscles tense up. He was getting ready to spring, and Jewel didn't realize. Adelaide's pupils dilated.

With a screech to kill, Rojo sprang towards Jewel, barbed talons aimed for her throat; Jewel cried out and went to shield herself with her wings, but Adelaide threw herself between them. They went crashing across the burnt remains of ferns, claws slashing, screeching. Rojo, in desperation, reached around blindly, looking for a stone. So caught up by the attack, he didn't realize what object he'd found. He wildly carved his talon through space, and then blood sprayed through the air. Adelaide's voice abruptly cut off, and she grew eerily still. Jewel's breath caught briefly. Time stopped to observe this moment in pure horror.

It was silent, as if the world had been muted, everything happening in slow motion. Jewel's scream was unheard, the spitting of fire ceased. Slowly, Adelaide looked at Rojo, eyes filled with nothing but pure shock. She reached down, and pulled the shard of wood free. It was drenched in blood. Adelaide started to tremble, and then her legs gave out. Jewel's beak moved to form Adelaide's name as she dived to catch Adelaide in her wings. Suddenly sound came rushing back, as Rojo staggered backwards, stunned by what he had done. Jewel was screaming hysterically.

"No, no! _Adelaide_!" Jewel looked up at Rojo in horror. "What have you _done?"_

"I... I didn't mean to..." but he was ignored as Jewel focused on Adelaide, who had tears falling, slowly, from her eyes.

"Why did you do that?" Jewel cradled Adelaide in her wings. "He was going for me!" Adelaide was bleeding. The puncture was streaming dark red, so dark it was almost black. Her eyes flickered, she twitched slightly. Her eyes flickered open and shut, but Jewel shook her frantically to keep her awake.

"Adelaide! Look at me! Look at me, I'm right here. Stay with me." She seized a piece of moss, tried to stop the flow of blood from Adelaide's stomach. But the blood kept coming, soaking, staining the moss red, until it soaked through to Jewel's feathers. Her efforts were futile, for the shard of wood had hit something important. Still, she held the moss to the wound in desperation. Adelaide was limp now, eyes glossed over, but they were alive and lost in Jewel's comforting turquoise ones. Like a tropical version, of the blue, blue sea that the white, white moon sailed over. The sea of Juanita's song.

"Jewel." Adelaide's voice was soft yet urgent, silencing Jewel, who clung onto her wing. She didn't feel the pain. She just felt... detached. More and more, as though part of her were melting away from the other. Jewel stared down at her, tears in her eyes. "Jewel. I... I loved..."

"Don't talk like that! You'll be alright!" Jewel clutched onto her wing still. "Don't talk. Save your energy, I'll get help!"

"Stay with me." Adelaide whispered. She held Jewel's wing too, but she'se was pale under her feathers. "I'm sorry... for everything I've said... I haven't been the greatest friend, have I?"

"Friends always argue! You've always been the greatest friend, I could ever have. Ever since the day I met you, Adelaide! We can still be friends. No matter what happens between our tribes, we'll always meet."

"We will meet, Jewel. We will meet again..." Adelaide knew it was true.

"You've always been my friend." Jewel continued, wanting to keep Adelaide awake, but every word she said was true. "Ever since I first met you, I knew you were more than just some kid I bumped into... you cared about me from the very beginning. I'm sorry for every stupid thing I've said..."

"Jewel... say you'll remember me." Adelaide felt the sense of detachment growing. As if she were climbing out of a shell, leaving that behind, a lighter part of her set free.

"Always." Jewel whispered, the last words Adelaide would hear from someone who was alive. Jewel's beak was moving to show she was speaking to her, but Adelaide was hearing something else. She didn't hear the fire around her, or even feel the heat of the fire anymore. She was looking into the sky, where she thought she saw a star, flashing, despite the smoke.

"I'm not afraid." Adelaide murmured.

Behind Jewel, the flaming forest had darkened to black. From this star, came a river of silver-blue light, pooling through the darkness. Adelaide saw a beautiful figure land on the floor, with the distinct grace she remembered. Stars seemed to be woven within her feathers. Singing a song heard in one of Adelaide's first memories, the one that had lulled her and Azalea to sleep, every night.

 _"It's only a white, white moon... sailing over the blue, blue sea. But it wouldn't be beautiful... without your love for me."_ Adelaide heard Juanita's voice for the first time in months, and saw her outstretched wings. Then Adelaide found herself gliding across the space between them, unable to resist Juanita's embrace. She looked once more at Jewel, before her flame extinguished.

 _Always._ Adelaide's voice, from somewhere, echoed.

"Adelaide... Adelaide?" Jewel was still there, as Adelaide's wing dropped from hers. She took a few moments to understand what had happened. Slowly, the horrifying realization washed over her. She no longer felt Adelaide's heart beat. Something inside her cracked.

Desperately, she tried. "I'm still here... come back." But there was nothing. Adelaide was dead, limp in her grasp. Jewel held Adelaide for a few more moments, before her wings loosened to allow her to slip to the floor. A new realization had come to Jewel, and suddenly she was shaking. Slowly, she got to her feet, and turned around. There was a dangerous look in her eyes as she stared at Rojo.

"You did this."

"I never meant to..." Rojo hated Adelaide, but had never meant to kill her. But Jewel had no sympathy.

"I'll kill you..." Jewel felt her grief turn to rage. All of this was his fault. He'd dragged them into the fire, and now, he'd done this. Adelaide was dead because of him. _"I'll kill you!"_ With a wordless shriek, Jewel threw out her wings to spring at him, but then there was a crack from overhead - an unknown power, moving to stop Jewel from doing something she would regret, or to end this once and for all.

She whipped her head up, and saw a huge branch - more like the size of a tree trunk rather than a branch. Jewel leapt out of the way, but Rojo was too slow. He screamed like never before, disappearing under the branch, and then more debris came showering onto him. He was screaming, in true agony this time. Jewel staggered away, horrified.

Jewel didn't want to leave Adelaide, but more debris was falling, driving her back. Weeping, Jewel cried out that she was sorry, before spinning round and fleeing into the burnt forest, too terrified to stay. The burning was dying out in this part of the forest, leaving everything black, like death. Adelaide's body lay in a patch of grass that had escaped the fire, and a few metres away, Rojo screamed his lungs raw.


	30. Coup de grace

"Adelaide!" Felipe yelled, pacing through the space he'd last seen her. He'd scanned the ground, the trees, but there was no sign of her at all. He didn't understand. If something hadn't happened to her here, why would she go into the forest, which blazed around him? The heat was searing, cinders burning him, his feathers growing singed. He heard Eduardo shouting through the trees, but Felipe wouldn't dream of showing his face. Eduardo would likely strangle him - suddenly he remembered. What had been Rojo's plan? Where even was Rojo? Had the plan failed because of the fire?

 _I don't care about him!_ "Adelaide!" He shrieked again, but his heart filled with dread at the thought of Rojo being trapped in the fire. He had buried him alive, but Perlina had loved him once, and he was still Felipe's father... he hadn't seen Rojo in the crowd. Felipe pitied him, if anything...

Felipe paused, hearing a distant sound. At first he shook it off, thinking he was hearing things; but then he heard it again. His heart thudded as he identified it. "Rojo?" He mused to himself. No. It couldn't be...

He was screaming for help. His voice was unmistakable, filled with pain, genuine fear. Felipe's heart lurched, and then he was racing towards the noise. For once, with the direness of the situation: "Father!" Not 'dad', but it was the most affectionate term Felipe had used in months.

The flames grew less fierce as he came closer to the source of Rojo's voice; the fire was dwindling in this area as the trees became too black to burn anymore, but they were spreading elsewhere and still burning in the background. The skeletons of the landscape were black, glowing orange lines meandering, tiny stars embedded, in the charred bark. The smoke was unbearable, but Felipe made himself keep going despite his damaged lungs.

Felipe landed on the ground, seeing a heap of branches, where Rojo was half-in, half-out of the pile of debris. He lay on his front, wings extended, where he'd tried to drag himself out. One wing was crumpled, the bones shattered. Underneath the pile, Rojo's back was awkwardly twisted, his lower spine broken. He was covered in claw marks and blood; a stream of it trickled directly between his eyes. Felipe stood there, in shock. "Felipe!" He cried, desperately. "I can't feel my..." But something else caught his attention - and Rojo was staring at it, which Felipe saw in the corner of his eye. Rojo shook, desperate for Felipe not to turn. But Felipe already had.

The fire faded from view and hearing. Felipe's breathing was all he heard, his wings started to shake.

"Adelaide." He said, in a raw voice. There she lay, face eerily still, yet somehow serene. Her eyes were slid shut, her face remarkably clean of ash and soot, her features somehow even more angelic than he remembered. But she looked so limp, her eyes glassy behind closed lids, one wing extended, as though she'd been holding someone's wing. Below her neck, she was a state. Her yellow and blue wings were black with soot, dappled with white ash, feathers singed. Her lower half was covered in blood, which had come from her belly. A deep, now dry wound, that was almost as black as Death's cloak. Felipe's talon brushed an object - a long shard of blood-soaked wood, like a knife. As though she'd been stabbed.

Felipe's scream ripped through the fabric of silence, as he raced to her side. He tried, in vain, to make her wake up. He held Adelaide, one wing cradling her face. But she was cold; not that cold, meaning she hadn't been dead for long. The tears started, falling, onto her face. "Adelaide... Adelaide..." He knew it was futile. She was gone; what he held was an empty shell. He pressed his face into her neck. "Please no... _no..."_ Felipe lost control as the grief came crashing down, as he realized she was no longer simply beyond his reach. He threw his head back and cried out in anguish. "It's not supposed to be like this! _You found me!_ You _came back..."_

His screams were muffled as he again buried his face in her feathers. His shrieks faded to weeping, as he lost the strength to scream. For a long moment, he stayed there, cradling her fragile body. Then he pulled his head back, and slowly, dangerously, turned his head to look at Rojo, who was coughing up blood.

"Did you do this?"

"I didn't..."

"Don't lie to me, Rojo! _Did you do this?"_ Felipe shrieked, tears flying from his eyes. Rojo refused to answer, but a part of Felipe died inside at the look of guilt on his face. Felipe started to tremble.

"Felipe... please... I can't feel my back..." Rojo was speaking with pure terror and fragility in his voice. His voice kept breaking with pain. "P-please! I can barely breathe..."

"It's your fault." Felipe rose from Adelaide, letting her slip, very gently, to the floor. He stalked up to Rojo, just out of reach. "You dragged us, everyone, out here... if it weren't for you, we'd be safe and Adelaide would still be alive!" He screamed at Rojo, who was undeserving of his sympathy in every way. "You've torn the tribe apart. You've torn _me_..." A numbness possessed Felipe. He turned his back on Rojo, and as though in a trance, slowly walked away.

"Felipe, what are you doing? Help me... please..." Rojo was spluttering, but then he made the mistake, of letting his true, cold self resurface. "You're... you're taking her? Why? She's _dead_! She can't be saved! Felipe!" This convinced Felipe. He picked up Adelaide, who felt so heavy, so limp in his grasp. Her head hung over his wing, her body a deadweight. He started to walk away, not looking back at Rojo, even when he started shrieking for mercy. " _Felipe!_ Listen to me! If you leave me here, I'll die! _I'm your father! I'll change!"_

Felipe looked back, one last time. Tears streamed from his eyes. "You'll never change." Felipe turned and walked away with Adelaide's body cradled in his wings, fading into the smoke. The ash burned his talons, but that was nothing compared to what he felt inside.

Rojo released a shriek, continuing to scream for help, but it was pointless and he knew it. But then it fell quiet. He saw a light, melting into view, but it was different to the one Adelaide saw. It wasn't welcoming at all, there were no stars to speak of.

Perlina stood a few feet away, face emotionless. Her wings were folded before her, one resting over the other. She was restored, beautiful, no sign of blood, every feather where it should be. Like Juanita, her feathers were woven with stars. They glowed in her eyes, like the stars of blue twilight, reflected on a lake, far away. But she had no love in her gaze. It was hollow, of someone who had lost all faith. "I hope you're proud of yourself."

"Perlina... help me."

"No, Rojo." Perlina's face was expressionless on the outside, but on the inside, she was crumbling. She fought to keep it down. "This needs to end. This is how." Her beak quivered. "You've destroyed the tribe. You killed innocent Adelaide, and yourself, by spreading that fire." The stone dropped. It sank, and hit the riverbed. Rojo shook, wishing a hole would open and swallow him, as his former mate looked at him with a bizarre mixture of hatred and heartbreak. "You stole that branch. You flew through the forest, setting fire to it as you did, and then you threw it in their land." Rojo was too weak to defend himself.

"Luckily for you, you're the only living soul that will ever know. No one alive will think you did this. If they knew you'd done this... they'd be divided, forever. Eduardo would never forgive." Perlina fought back tears. "You've broken them. Broken us. You may not have started it... but you spread it. If you hadn't... Felipe..." Perlina's blue eyes swam with tears, for she couldn't bear to think if what he was going through. Finally she allowed her emotion to show through. "You've broken my heart. Our son..."

"Perlina... I love you..."

"My love wasn't enough." Perlina's voice broke at last. "It was never enough for you." Like Felipe, she turned, and walked away. Wherever he was going, he certainly wouldn't be where she was. She began to cry in silence as she melted from view, for she would soon be needed elsewhere. But most of the tears were for him. The bird she'd once loved was gone - with that, she meant that the Rojo she'd fallen in love with had died long ago. She didn't recognize this deformed creature who had torn her son's heart in two. The beast that had shattered her own. She wanted to forget him, but the shame would torture her inside, forever.

Blood trickled from Rojo's beak, and then he slumped. His eyes stared blankly, unseeing, clouded with death's mist. A few moments later, a tree came crashing down onto his corpse, as if wishing to erase his existence. In years to come, plants and moss would grow over the fallen tree, and his bones would crumble into the earth, hiding, erasing him, from memory.


	31. Abyss

_Red_

Ash fell like snow, grey light turning everything dull and dark; but the treeline blazed red, thick grey smoke bleeding into the sky. The red macaws fell silent, as they watched Felipe appear from the smoke. He would remember this for the rest of his life.

Azalea limped forward, the crowd parting to let her pass, all eyes on her and Felipe. Up to her ankles in mud, red feathers streaked with black soot and white ash, Azalea looked like a skeleton in the ghostly light. Blood tears fell; or rather, the tears carving through the debris from her facial feathers, as she realized why Adelaide wasn't moving. Her beak shook, but no sound came out. Felipe couldn't think of a single thing to say to her - what on earth could he say? Sorry? Are you okay? He had no strength to speak. Grief and smoke had rendered him mute, and her too.

Without a word, Felipe stopped in front of Azalea, his eyes hollow. The crowd was turning away, to let them mourn without prying eyes, but some of them were starting to weep. Azalea looked at him, hazel eyes empty, almost soulless, for she felt, in that moment, more dead than alive. Her body moved as though on strings, someone prompting her to reach for Adelaide. Felipe initially tightened his grip, but then he passed Adelaide's cold, limp form to her cousin's outstretched wings. There he stood, unmoving, immobile, wings hanging limply at his sides.

Azalea took Adelaide's body as though she were made of glass. Adelaide lay in her wings like a fallen angel, eyes so softly closed, her face remarkably undamaged and clean of ash, but Azalea could see the horror past that, so much blood. Azalea's beak trembled, tears slipping down her face, as she looked down at all she had. Her wing rested gently on Adelaide's face, cradling her head and body with the other. Haunting voices filled the silent void, but Azalea knew they weren't really there.

Slowly, she looked up at Felipe, a single tear rolling down her face, the first of many. She gently pressed her beak to Adelaide's forehead, before her face sank into Adelaide's shoulder. Her body shook to show she was beginning to cry. Slowly, she and Felipe fell apart, unravelling like fabric. Juliana stood a few feet away, tears slowly dripping down her face, as Azalea cradled the bird she loved most. Felipe sank to the mud, his eyes as hollow as the hole inside his chest.

Adelaide.

 _Blue_

Jewel tore through the forest, blinded with tears, so caught up in the desperation to find her family that she didn't feel her grief for Adelaide. It was the shock, blocking off that path from her mind to her heart. She was delirious, confused - links had been severed. All of this, would lead to a terrible yet false realization.

A fireball came flailing her way, and Jewel threw herself forward, to avoid it. She felt the heat skim inches from her neck, and when she looked up, the tree had erupted into flames. Overwhelmed, petrified, Jewel staggered to her feet and continued to run, covering her head and shrieking in fear.

The reek of petrol grew overwhelming, and Jewel choked on it's vile human scent. This had been the way Adelaide had come; Jewel could see yellow shapes through the amber flames, as she skidded to a halt in a clearing. Huge monsters with teeth at the end of a single antenna, the corpses of trees still lashed together with chains, just beginning to catch fire. Jewel leaned heavily on a trunk, staring up at them; a pivotal moment in her life, the reason why she would grow to hate humanity. Suddenly a voice broke through.

"Jewel!" Cried a weak voice, stirring her to reality. It was then Jewel saw Stella, her mother's friend, laying in the grass. She'd been blasted this far away by the explosion, and she was covered in so many wounds it was a wonder she'd survived this long. Stella looked more like a red macaw than a blue. Jewel stared, paralyzed, the sight reminding her too much, of Adelaide. _Adelaide..._

Suddenly, a snowstorm of cinders came flying, straight into the trail of petrol that hadn't yet caught fire. But now, the fire came hurtling through the grass, devouring the river which emptied into a lake. The pool of petrol burst into flame underneath one of the tree harvesters. The machinery was covered in it - the flame went diving into a crevice in the machine side, straight into - although Jewel didn't know this - the engine.

The air cracked as an ear-splitting explosion ripped through the clearing; much worse than the oil canister, for the source was so much larger. Jewel was sent flying as the explosion picked her off the ground, and threw her brutally. She crashed into a tree, thundering down through the branches and to the hard ground. She did not move for a long time, but then there was a sign of life. Jewel lay there on the ground, silence possessing her, her ears screaming in silence. But then the high-pitched whine crept in, and suddenly she had no idea what was going on.

She was deafened, vague noises in the background, as though she were immersed in deep water and hearing something above the surface. Jewel was terrified that she heard almost nothing. She rolled onto her front, head hanging as though her neck were broken, as she covered her ears to block out the whining sound, with no effect. Her beak outstretched in a silent cry of agony, her hearing obliterated.

Jewel eventually looked up, a trail of red coming from her ears. The dream quality came back, as if she were in another body, another time. So delirious, so shaken, Jewel staggered over to Stella's body; she'd been thrown far from where she lay, and this had worsened her condition. Grappling for Stella's wing, Jewel couldn't hear her own voice, let alone Stella's, as she tried to ask whether anyone was dead. Stella's face was covered in blood, she was twitching strangely. But then one word broke through the mist of Jewel's hearing.

 _"Everyone."_ Stella hadn't meant it that way. What she'd said was this: Everyone is looking for you. But 'everyone' was all Jewel heard, in response to her desperate question. What she understood was: _Everyone is dead._ Jewel went numb. Stella jerked in her wings, and then was still.

Jewel stared down at Stella's body, in disbelief. _It can't be true._ Jewel leapt to her feet, looking around, the panic, the immeasurable grief and desire to run away, surging. _No! It can't be true!_ Jewel staggered through the burnt remains of foliage, desperate to see for herself, but she was confused and blinded by the tears coming, as she remembered Adelaide, thought of how everyone she loved had just been taken out with one swipe.

 _Mimi. Dad. Mom..._ her friends, too? Roberto, who was like a brother, and Sophia, everyone she cared about... dead. _No! No!_ Jewel didn't know whether she was thinking this, or screaming it out loud. She was delirious and deaf, hearing nothing but crushing silence, slight waves of indistinguishable sound in the background. She stumbled into the clearing they'd met in, but what she saw was a microcosm of what she believed happened that night.

Bodies lay in the grass - she hadn't known that those who had lived had staggered away in shock, too frightened or injured to take the bodies of the dead, or off searching for their missing loved ones. Blue and red forms littered the forest floor, wings and tails hanging out of grass, which concealed who they belonged to. Burns splotched their skins, feathers were everywhere, and eyes like glass stared, lifeless and dead, into the sky or at the last place they'd seen someone they loved. _Everyone._

Jewel couldn't process the view in front. _I... I..._ nothing came for a while. Child-like voices started in her head, replacing the silence with a word: Everyone. It was getting louder, moving from a whisper to demonic shrieks, telling her that everyone she loved was dead. Jewel sensed something, and looked over her shoulder, to see a tree, crashing down towards her. She sprang clear, the voices still torturing her from within, as she tried to flee.

"Leave me alone!" She wailed at the voices, as she ran. But she had barely run for a few moments when something within her told her to stop. Jewel's heartbeat throbbed in her chest.

Then an invisible force was pulling her one way. Through the voices and the silence, Jewel heard something faint, yet real. A scream, abruptly cut off, and the voices fell deathly silent. Jewel spun towards it, frozen, so _cold_. She lifted her wing to move some black ferns aside, a decision she'd regret forever, for that image would be so firmly engraved in her mind in the years to come. Someone, looking for Jewel, had just been struck from the air with such force, she hadn't been able to rise again. She'd been calling and calling for her, Jewel unable to hear, when it happened.

Jewel didn't see the flames, the chaos around her form in the grass. She looked so frail, her neck hanging strangely. Her eyes, like teal marbles, gazing into the sky, her midnight blue feathers blackened. Time stopped, as it had, when Adelaide had been impaled. _This can't be real._ Jewel started to shudder. Some individuals, when they'd seen what she had, would have raced over and collapsed by her side, cradled her corpse, desperately tried to find signs of life. But Jewel was not one of these individuals. With a cry of despair, she turned, and started to run.

A few moments later, the scream brought Eduardo and Mimi running. They skidded to a halt, where Jewel had been moments before, and then realized who the scream belonged to. Jewel didn't hear their mournful cries, Eduardo's heartbreak, as he reached Tia and desperately tried to bring her back.

"Tia! Tia!" He held her in his wings, cradling her face. Mimi stood behind him, wings clasped in horror, over her beak. Tears streamed from her eyes, and she sank to the ground, slowly, realizing that Tia was dead. Eduardo was screaming for help, at her to do something, but Mimi knew it would be futile. She covered her face, and her body shuddered to show she was sobbing. Eventually, when Eduardo realized nothing could be done, he clasped Tia to him, threw back his head, and screamed his heartbreak.

As Jewel pelted through the forest, absorbing what she'd seen, the voices returned. Her mother's voice, telling her to stop. Her name, called by those looking for her in the living world, through the forest. Still deafened, Jewel didn't think they were real. She thought they were ghosts, haunting her. Eduardo and Mimi were shrieking, but Jewel thought they were only heard because they were the voices of the dead. This confirmed her misunderstanding: her home was gone. Her friends, her family... she'd seen her _dead mother..._

The fire still raged around her, the ground scorched her feet, the burnt trees looked like figures with sharp claws reaching towards the sky, the fire burning in patches like glowing eyes. The voices, both the demonic ones of her imagination and the faintly heard mourning ones of reality, thundered in her ears despite her deafness, which she believed to be the ghosts of the dead, coming to haunt her.

 _You could have saved us! Why didn't you do more?_

 _Jewel, speak to me!_

"Get out of my head!" Jewel screamed, refusing to listen. "Get _out!"_ Suddenly, her talon snagged on a root. She went crashing, tumbling down a slope, through burnt foliage, hot piles of ash, but before she could stop herself, she was plunged into coldness. Water, closing around her, pulling her into its grasp. Jewel was suspended in the water, in shock, by the contrast, by what she'd just seen.

Darkness.

Jewel wasn't struggling or moving. She lay there in the dark, eyes closed, wings outstretched, conscious, but not fighting. She began to sink, the current dragging her, down, into the murky depths. The voices ceased to silence. It was peaceful. The water, it's fluid feel, how it embraced her. Such comfort, soothing her burns, the dark inviting her in. The darkness, cold, wetness, of the river, while above the surface, blazing light, heat, and the land scorched dry... down here, where the river nursed the drowned.

But then her eyes flew open, for something kicked her alive. As if it had been sent to her, a raft of debris, branches sticking out at all angles, snagged her from death's reach. Despite everything, Jewel came back to life, as she got a grip on the branches, tried to resurface and fill her screaming lungs, which hadn't occured to her in her moment of stillness. A current pushed her up, or someone on her side, and Jewel hauled herself onto the raft, where she collapsed, eyes fixed on the blood red treeline, what had been her home.

The silence was all there was now, no voices, not even Tia's. Her eyes rolled in their sockets, and then Jewel plunged into an abyss.


	32. Hope

_Azalea held a shaking wing over the mound of earth, a petal in her grasp. She shook, unable to drop it on the grave._

Her eyes flew open, and she sat up abruptly, cold sweat through her feathers, as she replayed Adelaide's funeral. She closed her eyes, and wrapped her wings around herself. It had been a week. How, how had it been a week? A week since she had died inside? She curled back up, but couldn't sleep. The tears were coming back, and then, when she was crying, in absolute silence. She hugged a pile of moss to her chest, tears seeping through closed lids. But then she decided she couldn't do it. She got up and went outside, to the top of the kapok, and wept where nobody, especially not her mother, would hear. Juliana was finding it difficult enough, and Azalea didn't want to hear her cry again.

The funeral had been so difficult to get through. Azalea had been crying the whole time, Juliana had only come to the grave when the crowd had left, and Felipe had been stony-faced, his eyes as dead as Azalea felt. He hadn't left his hollow since the burial, and bless Juliana, she had been leaving coconut shells of water and food outside it. Most of it had been left untouched, the fruit soft and the water warmed by the air, when Azalea trudged past in the morning.

She hadn't left the kapoks, which had just about escaped the fire. Everyone kept coming up to her, to say how sorry they were to help her feel better. But they weren't helping. Whenever someone did that, Azalea had to resist clawing them across the face or screaming at them.

The fire had taken two days to die. It's scar blackened the landscape in the distance, savaging a huge stretch of land. Heavy rains had come to drown the dying flames entirely, and swollen clouds looming overhead warned of a new storm. Azalea ducked down into the tree, and started the descend down. She passed Blanche and Mitch's hollow, but when she looked inside, their nests were cold and empty. Flowers wreathed the entrance, for Blanche and Mitch had been found lifeless in the blackened forest, still holding wings. At least another fifteen had died, many of whom had been in Rojo's inner circle. The rest who remained, only about four individuals, were keeping their heads down. Caesura had left the tribe last night as soon as Drizelle's wing started showing signs of healing. She hadn't said why, but many were saying it was shame.

Azalea passed Felipe's - and Adelaide's - hollow, but stopped. Once again, the food left out for him was untouched. She reached up to knock, hesitating. The other day, someone had tried to talk to Felipe - of course, he was their leader now, and he wasn't doing much to lead. That had ended badly, ending with Felipe screaming at them leave him alone. But then she tapped the tree trunk.

"Felipe? Please. I know you're in there..." Azalea leaned against the tree trunk, speaking through the moss curtain. No answer. "Say something. I need to know you're okay." She was, again, replied with silence, and she dropped her wing from the tree trunk. She shook her head and turned, sinking to the floor. Her beak shook, before her eyes closed. Directly on the other side, Felipe sat with his back pressed to the wall, in what had been Adelaide's nest. Her amber anklet was hanging, limply, from his wing. Her blood was still there; or he thought so. It was as though no matter had hard he'd scrubbed his feathers with water, the blood never released it's hold. His eyes, glazed with pain, slid shut.

Across the forest, in a large, lonely tree, a blue form sat quietly in the rain. His head was bowed, long head feathers hanging over his face. The storm clouds wept, soaking him, but he had no strength to move inside.

Roberto had been watching the fire flare on one side of the cliffs, terrified that it would come tumbling down to burn their home to the ground. Luckily, it hadn't. But by dawn, they'd come back. The group, so small compared to the one that had left the ravine the night before. Twenty of the forty who had gone as back-up had come back covered in leaves and carried by the survivors. Another seven had not yet been found, meaning their bodies still lay in the forest, or they were too afraid to come back.

The tribe was in mourning. If someone hadn't lost a friend or family member, they knew someone who had been injured by the fire. Half of the territory was burned - it hadn't spread, thanks to the river that tumbled down the waterfall and then flowed out of the ravine. It effectively sliced their territory in half, stopping the fire from consuming their whole home. But the tribe was scarred. Several had left to 'be safer'- including Kida and Mila.

Roberto had asked them where they were going; they'd replied that they no longer felt safe here, especially Mila, who believed it was cursed. They were going away to explore the world, together, and maybe one day they'd come back. They'd wished him luck and apologized for his loss, before leaving without saying goodbye to anyone else. He wanted to run away too. He would have, if Eduardo and Mimi had perished. There would be nothing for him if they weren't still here.

It was like losing his mother and sister all over again. When he was little, before he'd been captured by humans, he'd lost his whole family to a logging incident. His father crushed by a fallen tree, his mother had died before his eyes, his teenage sister had disappeared and he assumed her dead. After he'd been found by the tribe, these lost roles had been lovingly filled by Eduardo, Tia, and Jewel, and Mimi too had become his new family.

But now Tia and Jewel were gone, and they'd reminded him so much of his birth mother and sister. He couldn't bear to be in the same tree as Eduardo, just the two of them, staring at the empty nests Tia and Jewel had once slept in, the moss that still lingered with Tia's rain-soaked jasmine and Jewel's comforting sandalwood scent. That was why he now lived here, to escape the painful reminders, and let Eduardo grieve.

Eduardo and Mimi had shut themselves away. Mimi had, at least, for most of this week - but two days ago she had made an appearance, to see Roberto and try to knit the unravelled tribe back together. She'd looked rough, feathers messy and eyes red, which had been glossy with held back tears. But Eduardo hadn't appeared once. Mimi checked on him every day to make sure he hadn't "done anything silly". Stanley had done just that when Stella had been found dead next to some human wreckage, adding to the casualties.

Roberto had broken down when faced with Tia's body. Her neck broken, her eyes lifeless. She had been cold, her feathers almost black, and Roberto had briefly bid his last goodbye before fleeing to weep his heart out, unable to see someone he loved so dearly in such a way. It was comforting to know that a broken neck was one of the more painless and quickest ways to die, but what haunted him was the idea that her last moments had been spent desperately terrified about Jewel. Her funeral had been comparable to torture. The whole tribe had left a petal each on the grave so it was a rainbow of colours, as per tradition, but Eduardo hadn't even turned up. Roberto was afraid to go back to the grave in case it reopened the wound on his heart.

 _It's not supposed to be like this. This doesn't happen to good individuals..._

"Can't you sleep either?" Said a voice, behind him. One of the few who dared to speak to him in his time of darkness. Sophia was still cautious, however, in case he snapped at her to go away like he had four days ago.

"I can't." Roberto was too broken to sleep.

"Come out of the rain, you'll catch your death..." Sophia winced when she mentioned 'death' without thinking, but he didn't particularly care. He didn't turn to look at her.

"It makes me feel more alive." Not in this case. Roberto still felt dead and empty. But then feeling came back into his skin, and he hauled himself back into shelter. A pool of water formed, from how soaked he was, and soon he was regretting sitting out there for so long. Sophia, like all of his and Jewel's friends, had eyes that recently showed signs of crying.

"I miss Jewel too." She said, voice catching at her name. Roberto padded on the sandy floor, away from her, trying not to break in front of her. But then he couldn't. He covered his face, his body shuddered uncontrollably, as he slid to the floor and cried into his wings. Despite her own pain, Sophia sat next to him and looped a wing around his shoulders, trying to comfort her friend. "It'll get better."

"I just want them back." Roberto felt so childish, but he couldn't help himself, and Sophia wasn't judging him in the slightest. "I want to see Tia. And I want my sister back..." Sophia was endeared by this notion, that Roberto had thought of Jewel as his sister. She tried to think of something that could possibly make him feel better, despite her tears threatening to spill.

"I know it hurts." Sophia placed her free wing on his shoulder. "But you'll get through this. It won't hurt like this forever, I promise." Roberto looked up at her, before drawing a wing across his eyes. He rested his chin on his wings, staring blankly ahead. Sophia hesitated before sharing her thoughts. "I... I don't know if this'll help. But they didn't find Jewel. I know Eduardo and Mimi think she... but Ravenna went missing, and she was found yesterday, just a bit dazed and confused. Jewel could still be out there. Maybe... she just needs to find her way back."

Roberto looked at his friend with tear-filled eyes, although they weren't as tearful as before, at this notion. "I hope you're right." he didn't tell her this, but he comforted himself by gazing at the moon when it was out, and speaking to it, wondering if she was on the other side, talking to him too. _Jewel could be alive._ That thought kept coming to him. Eduardo was infuriated whenever anyone suggested Jewel could be alive - he called them foolish and stupid. Grief had made him hopeless, but Roberto still hoped. He wondered if Mimi did too. "Thank you, Soph."

"When you're up to it, I think you should write a song to welcome her home. A song you'll sing the moment she turns up, to make her feel good again. She loved your songs. And be cheerful. Don't do the melancholic sort of reuniting song, okay?" Sophia was trying to make him feel better, and it worked - Roberto, for the first time in a week, managed to smile.

"I will. You can help me write one." They gazed outside, watching the rain wash the earth, and while it still hurt terribly, Roberto felt a little better at the thought that Jewel might still be alive. The forest would heal, and in time, he, Eduardo, and Mimi would too. But for now, he and Sophia watched the rain in silence.


	33. Waiting for you

_A month later_

Only recently, had he managed to stop crying himself to sleep. Felipe sat in some grass, watching the night sky. His wings were wrapped around himself, and he was rather stiff. The empty patch of grass next to him, which had once been where Adelaide was. This happened to be the same patch of grass he and Adelaide had loved star-gazing in, but as he remembered this, old feelings came back, the swirl of memory. Then the stars were reflected in his tearful green eyes, he instinctively twisted his neck to pull out some feathers, but managed to stop himself.

Felipe had been tearing out a few feathers whenever he was overwhelmed by the resurrected agony of the memories of last month. It often happened when birds went through grief. More and more red feathers littered the kapoks; Felipe, under his wings where nobody would see unless he flew, had some bald patches. He was starting to do it less, the feathers growing back patchily, but the fire had still broken him.

"Adelaide, if you can hear me..." He kept his eyes fixated on the sky, but then paused. _What do I say?_ "I'm sorry I never did anything right. I let you down... but why did you go to him?" This was the first time he'd really thought about Rojo, his mind fixed on Adelaide. He forgot that Adelaide had had a Spix's friend - he couldn't remember who it was, he wasn't even sure if his accusation of her having a secret friend had been true or not or him jumping to a conclusion. This didn't cross his mind, that maybe she went in there to save her friend. It would never cross his mind in years to come.

He didn't mourn Rojo. What was there to mourn? He was no father to Felipe, he never had been. Even when he was a kid, Rojo hadn't exactly showered him with affection. They'd despised each other. He could have denied it all he liked as he lay with a broken spine under the debris, even if it had been an accident, but Felipe knew Rojo had killed Adelaide. He would have been in agony as he died, and Felipe was glad he suffered. So why did he feel this way? Sadness, over someone he hated?

"You were all I had, Adie. First I lost my mother... then yours... you... and even Rojo. You were my family. And now I have nothing. Even Rojo was... something. Maybe that's why I feel like this..." Were Azalea and Juliana his family? It didn't feel like it, at least not now. They'd been rather absent from his life as a chick. Azalea out of moodiness and the fear that he'd take Adelaide away from her, Juliana being distant to anyone with her grief. Although, in the past month, he'd felt himself feeling more affection for the pair of them. He was grateful for Juliana bringing him food and water when he was too fragile to leave the kapoks, and for Azalea trying to reach out to him. They were the closest thing he had to family now.

"I wish you were here." He murmured, eyes on the stars. "I need someone to help me. It's hard... taking over. Especially without you." It was easy to forget he was now a leader. A teenaged leader. He was utterly unprepared and clueless, there had never been a leader his age before. It was a good thing the patrols were self-running; with Rojo's absence in the run up to the fire, the tribe had become more independent without the need for a leader to handle and organize everything. In time there would be some decisions to be made; hopefully by then, he'd be ready...

He missed Adelaide. It still hurt, brutally. The sight of her empty nest, when he woke up and remembered she wasn't there. But it was more bearable now. "See you in a minute."

Felipe just had one last challenge. He'd been meaning to do it for a while, but he'd resisted. But he couldn't do it alone. He got up, leaving the stargazing spot, and headed back to the kapoks. It still felt difficult, flying through the forest - out of the corner of his eye, he saw blackness, and although it was shrinking back as the forest started to heal, it still hurt to see. The smell of smoke seemed everywhere still.

"Azalea?" He asked, but her nest was empty.

"She's gone out." Juliana muttered, sleepily.

"Where?"

"To see Adelaide." She murmured, before her head nuzzled into the moss of her nest and she went back to sleep. He noted, with relief, how the despair had faded from her voice a month after Adelaide's demise. But then he took in these words. He swallowed hard; that was where he wanted to go. She was there already, and he'd come here to ask her for support as he finally visited the grave after the funeral.

He plucked a white orchid on his way there, realizing that his talons were shaking as he made his way toward the grave. They'd buried her in a place ordinary birds dreamed of being buried, a lovely spot by one of the streams, at the base of a beautiful tree cascading vines and pink flowers around it. Azalea had specifically chosen it for it's beauty and seclusion, near the Blue-and-Gold boundary, so this would always be a peaceful place. It came into view, bathed in silver moonlight. The stream passed, a quiet trickling sound.

Azalea was standing before the patch of soil, which was marked with a distinct creamy coloured rock. The sea of petals placed by each tribe member had long disintegrated into the earth, but moss was starting to grow, soft and thick, over it. It looked as though Azalea had left some flowers, too. Felipe looked at the grave, his heart sick, and he made himself look away.

"Azalea." He said. Azalea jumped, and spun round with shocked hazel eyes. He'd interrupted her in deep thought, startling her. "Sorry."

"It's okay." She said, looking surprised to see him. Azalea didn't know what to say. "Are you... okay?" She'd been asking him since he'd started appearing in public again whether he wanted to visit Adelaide with her, but it had upset him. So seeing Felipe here was the last thing she expected - what was his state of mind? It could be anything. Azalea studied his expression to try and identity it.

"Just thought I'd come and see her." Felipe looked at the white orchid he'd found, holding back his tears. He came forward, to the grave, and placed it in with the flowers Azalea had left, and she watched him, stiffly. His wing remained on the earth, before he rose to stand. Blinking rapidly, his emotions stirred inside him, as his tears threatened to spill. He turned to face Azalea, who shook slightly, her face creasing, tears making her eyes glossy. She wrung her wings and looked at the floor, reminded, of her pain. As her tears spilled, so did Felipe's. They hugged, bittersweet and purely platonic, as they shed their last tears over Adelaide.

They couldn't see Adelaide. Yet she looked on. _I meant so much to them... I never realized._

Adelaide could see that something was going to happen, when the scars had faded. Juanita suspected, she'd been concerned by the prospect - but Adelaide didn't mind. The thought of Felipe and Azalea felt right, like a jigsaw that fitted perfectly. She knew it would take a while, but in time, they'd realize that it was meant to be, that she wouldn't mind. She knew how she felt about Felipe, purely platonic, as it turned out. Maybe it wasn't him she loved, she thought. She had loved someone... in the way she was supposed to love Felipe. But it wasn't meant to be, their paths were so different. It hurt, but she'd move on. Adelaide could meet someone, up there. There were plenty of spirits, alone and from other times, searching for what they hadn't managed to discover while alive. Maybe she'd grow to love one of them.

She missed them all. Felipe, Juliana, dear Azalea, and of course, Jewel. She'd tried to reach Jewel, but a mist had formed, shutting her out. Jewel was unreachable at this moment in time, but at least, a very long time from now, Adelaide would welcome her as a dear friend. At peace with this notion, Adelaide vanished, leaving Felipe and Azalea to mourn, but it was less painful. The first stitch had appeared in their broken selves as they separated, and left the graveside in its pool of silver light.

 _Dawn_

A very long way away, so far beyond anyone's reach, a blue figure stood on the edge of the Amazon. The sun slowly rose, liquid amber, the sky a soft pink. It was comforting, reminding Jewel of the mornings she used to know. But they were never the same. They didn't exist anymore.

Sound had crept back into her ears a few days after she'd woken, her raft knocking gently against a metal surface, with swirly writing saying the _S. S. Lucinda_. It was a miracle she'd made the journey from her home to a city without her raft being torn apart, a sky predator plucking her, or one of the many boats in the harbour tearing through the debris that carried her. She'd been milling on the edge of Manaus ever since she'd arrived, torn between leaving and going back in. But now, she'd made her decision.

Jewel stood by a tree, where she'd been carving. Four names - Eduardo, Mimi, Roberto, Tia. And just a little way below, Adelaide. Jewel stared at the names, pain glazing her eyes, before she placed a wing over it. She clenched her beak, holding back her tears, before closing her eyes and forcing herself to turn away. Jewel had to leave. She didn't have the strength to go back in.

What was there now for her? Stella had said they were dead. She'd seen her tribemates motionless and burned in the grass. Her mother... she thought she heard the voice of Tia again, and she covered her face, tormented by what she thought was a ghost haunting, taunting her. She blocked it out, and looked again, at the tree trunk. _I'll come back someday. For them, I'll come back._

Jewel flew fast, running away - she wanted the pain taken, so she wouldn't feel it anymore. She had no idea what was to come. Her heart would mend, but she would never tell anyone about her childhood. In time, she'd come to forget some of it. She'd barely think about her connection to Rojo and Felipe through Adelaide, which would be why she'd keep her distance when she eventually came back, why she'd never tell anyone about Adelaide, even if one day she would befriend Felipe and Azalea, as the tribes reunited thanks to somebody she would love. But she would always remember Adelaide. Their friendship was their secret, just theirs, and nobody could take that away.

"She won't let me in." A mournful voice Jewel couldn't hear. Where Jewel had stood, translucent and starry, was Tia and Perlina. Tia looked at her daughter, so far beyond her reach, and her heart broke. "What can I do, Perlina?"

"I don't know how to say this... but I think you've done everything you can." Perlina looked pained saying it. "She's so upset I... I don't think you can help her. Maybe... this is something she has to do on her own." Jewel thought Tia's attempts to reach her were ghosts coming to haunt her. The line had blurred between true nightmares and visions of Tia, meaning Jewel couldn't tell what was real anymore. It was too soon, too agonizing. A mist had formed around Jewel, around her family, who were suffering the same. They fled from Tia's voice too, including Eduardo.

"I can't leave her... any of them..." Tia whispered.

"You never will." Perlina tried to comfort her. Tia watched with a heavy heart as Jewel grew smaller. She didn't know where she was going, but she knew it was going to be a long time. Until then, all Tia could do was watch and try to heal her own pain. She felt the light pulling her away again, both her and Perlina. _I'll return to you, my love. I'll be waiting until we're together._

"I'll be waiting." She watched Jewel grow smaller, until she was a drop of blue ink, then the size of a star, how far away she and Tia were from each other. Jewel disappeared, flying into an unknown world.

 ** _And... c'est fini. This rewrite actually made it to the end! At one point I thought I couldn't finish it... that's a relief. Again guys, I'm so happy you've stuck by me and left such wonderful and supportive comments, it's really helped drive me. I'm quite happy with this, it's certainly much better than the calamity that was the original. Thank you!_**

 ** _Now, I hate to say this... but this, I think, is a nice ending point. I am literally out of ideas for Rio, I've dedicated three years to my various Rio stories, and yes, not only am I out of ideas, but I think I've had enough of writing Rio after all this time. Of course I'm not leaving fanfiction - I've got a Melody of the Ocean sequel in the works, and of course I'm always here to answer PMs and comments. I'm just not doing another Rio story. Who knows, maybe I'll come back, if I'm passionate about an idea and miss all this. Thank you for three wonderful years of support and love._**

 ** _I love you all, and again, thank you and feel free to ask me anything!_**

 ** _\- Sorrel x_**


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